Gormenghast (novel) 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, who becomes Headmaster of Gormenghast school. Steerpike, despite his position of authority,
Titus Awakes to comment on. Watney told a slightly different tale. In 1992 Overlook Press, the American publishers of the Gormenghast series, printed at the end of "Titus Alone" the existing coherent portions of Mervyn Peake's "Titus Awakes", with a brief introduction by John Watney. They consist of three pages from which it is clear that, although Titus has left Gormenghast, the castle remains active in his memory and important in the story. Although Peake wrote further passages, the editors were unable to decipher them. This unfinished work is not well-known even among readers of Peake's other works, having been published only