The Gormenghast trilogy was one of the most unusual cult cycles of the 20th-century. In this surreal, darkly comic fantasy telling the story of Titus, 77th Earl of Groan, Mervyn Peake created a vivid world with strong characters enveloped in intrigue and fearful intent. Here are the three novels completed by Peake, and a fourth, a completion of a fragment left at his early death in 1968. Rupert Degas, an astonishingly versatile...
Mark never heard the Mauser shot for the bullet came ahead of the sound. There was only the massive shock in the upper part of his body, and then he was hurled backwards with a violence that drove the air from his lungs.The earth opened before him, and as he fell, there was a sensation of being engulfed in a swirling vortex of blackness and he knew for just a fleeting instant of time that he was dead'