Gormenghast (novel) adaptations, including film, live theatre, radio performances, television serials, and an opera. Gormenghast (novel) Gormenghast is a fantasy novel by British writer Mervyn Peake, the second in his Gormenghast series. It is the story of Titus Groan, 77th Earl of Groan and Lord of Gormenghast Castle, from age 7 to 17. As the story opens, Titus dreads the pre-ordained life of ritual that stretches before him. To Titus, Master of Ritual Barquentine and his apprentice Steerpike are the embodiment of all he wants to rebel against. An important sub-plot involves Titus at school, where he encounters the professors, especially Bellgrove,
Gormenghast (series) both die for her, but not before one of them impregnates her. Eventually, she kills herself by leaping off a crag, after giving birth to a daughter — The Thing. (In the film adaptation, she dies in childbirth.) The Thing: The daughter of Keda, foster sister of Titus. Due to her illegitimacy, she is an outcast who becomes a feral child living in the wilderness surrounding Gormenghast. She is fierce and untameable, living only for herself, and takes her revenge on the Bright Carvers by mutilating their carvings. Believing that she is in every way the opposite of Gormenghast, Titus