His escape from the kitchen during the castle's celebration of Lord Titus' birth introduces change into the stultified Gormenghast society. The second is Steerpike, a ruthlessly ambitious kitchen boy, whose rise to power drives the plot of Titus Groan. Though he is the title character and integral to the plot, Titus appears only infrequently as an infant during his first two years of life. The first catalyst is the birth of Titus Groan, the heir to Lord Sepulchrave, which interrupts the centuries-old daily rituals which are practiced at all levels of the castle's society, from the kitchens to the Hall of Bright Carvings in Gormenghast's upper reaches. Flay, who believes in strictly adhering to the rules of Gormenghast.Īt the beginning of the novel, two agents of change are introduced into the stagnant society of Gormenghast. Also important to the life of the castle is Lord Sepulchrave's personal servant, Mr. This desire for power, along with their general ignorance, allows for them to be easily manipulated by Steerpike in his quest for authority. Both crave political power and bitterly resent Gertrude, believing that she robbed them of their rightful place in the hierarchy of Gormenghast and of any involvement in its affairs. They have the same vague and vacant personalities, lacking intelligence to the point of intellectual disability. Both suffered from epileptic fits in their youth, as a result of which their left arms and legs are "rather starved". Sequestered in the south wing of the castle are Sepulchrave's identical twin sisters Cora and Clarice Groan, notable for always being dressed in purple. Self-absorbed, childish and thoughtless, she is also impulsive, imaginative and at times fiercely affectionate.
Their daughter is 15-year-old Fuchsia Groan, attended to by the easily upset Nannie Slagg.
Instead, she spends her time either in her bedroom or in walking selected areas, in the company of a legion of birds and her white cats that alone command her affections. Large and imposing, with dark red hair, she pays no attention to her family or to the rest of Gormenghast. His only escape is reading in his library. He is a melancholy man who feels shackled by his duties as Earl, although he never questions them. The Groan family is headed by Lord Sepulchrave, the seventy-sixth Earl of Groan. The book is set in the huge castle of Gormenghast, a vast landscape of crumbling towers and ivy-filled quadrangles that has for centuries been the hereditary residence of the Groan family and with them a legion of servants. It is the first novel in the Gormenghast series. Titus Groan is a novel by Mervyn Peake, first published in 1946.
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