Titus Alone

"Had Titus come across a world of dragons he could hardly have been more amazed than by these fantasies of glass and metal..." (TA, 32).

Mervyn Peake, "Titus Alone" (1959). In "Trillion Year Spree" Brian Aldiss does a practical criticism on two passages- one from Tolkien, one of Peake. In terms of literary panache, Peake wins hands down, Aldiss decides. Reading Peake's last novel of the famous Gormenghast trilogy- not read the first two- I can only agree. You wallow in the consciously archaic prose style, and marvel at the author's ability to blend realism with fantastic elements. Self cast from the gothic Gormenghast Castle, Titus Groan, lord of that kingdom ventures out into the wider world; there he encounters a cast of brilliant eccentric characters hailing from all classes of society. He literally falls in on an aristocratic party, some of whom spout Peake's nonsense verse, and meets with the deracinated people of the Under-River, two classes living within a scientifically controlled dystopia full of beautiful women, police officers, roguish villains, and a menagerie of wild animals. It's an exploding carnival which literally ignites at the end with Muzzlehatch's destruction of the scientist's factory. Though Peake creates a hybrid of gothic fantasy and sci-fi futurism, his roots are to be found in Dickens, since the author excells in creating a wonderful cast of dysfunctional individuals, some with pure hearts of gold like Juno, some with minds of frantic evil, like Cheeta. Peake's names are wonderful in themselves, before one attends to the plot and action: Muzzlehatch, Crack-Bell, Old Crime, Veil, Black Rose, and so on. I'm by no means a Peake expert, but if this is his weakest novel, it's a good weakness, since many purveyors of dark fantasy like Moorcock, Pullman, couldn't rise to Peake's height of invention. I will read more Peake in future. There can be no higher praise!