New Releases by Mervyn Peake

À 20 ans, Titus n’en peut plus de Gormenghast et de l’enfermement qui caractérise la vie entre les murs du château de ses ancêtres. Les intrigues et les règles absurdes, les responsabilités qui lui incombent et la solitude écrasent le jeune homme, épris d’aventures et de rencontres nouvelles. Profitant de la confusion causée par une grande inondation, Titus s’enfuit et délaisse son titre de comte pour s’en aller découvrir ce qui existe au-delà des murs du château et des terres attenantes. Mais il ne sait rien de ce monde étrange. Pire encore : personne ne semble croire en l’existence de Gormenghast... Chef-d’oeuvre de la littérature fantastique, Le Cycle de Gormenghast est une déambulation surréaliste dans un château-monde aux proportions extraordinaires, et bien au-delà.

A young heir matures within a bleak, sprawling castle filled with intrigue in this epic gothic trilogy, featuring over 100 illustrations by the author. Titus is expected to rule this extraordinary kingdom and his eccentric and wayward subjects. But with the arrival of an ambitious kitchen boy, Steerpike, the established order is thrown into disarray. Over the course of these three novels—Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone—Titus must contend with a kingdom about to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation, and murder. Intoxicating, rich, and unique, The Gormenghast Trilogy is a tour de force that ranks as one of the twentieth century''s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing. This special edition, published for the centenary of Mervyn Peake’s birth, is accompanied by over one hundred of Peake''s dazzling drawings. Praise for Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast Trilogy “[Peake’s books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience.” —C. S. Lewis “Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It is a very, very great work . . . A classic of our age.” —Robertson Davies “[A] magnificent ediface spun from thin air by a tortured genius.” —Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture “This extravagant epic about a labyrinthine castle populated with conniving Dickensian grotesques is the true fantasy classic of our time.” —Washington Post Book World

Un monument de la littérature de l''imaginaire, une œuvre culte. Titus d''Enfer (1946) – Titus dans les ténèbres (nouvelle, 1956) – Gormenghast (1950) – Titus errant (1959) Dans le château de Gormenghast, aux proportions si démesurées que des parties entières restent inexplorées, vit la famille Tombal : lord Tombal, comte d''Enfer, neurasthénique et plongé toute la journée dans les livres de sa bibliothèque, Lady Tombal, la comtesse, qui se partage entre ses chats et ses oiseaux, leur fille Fuchsia, adolescente solitaire et imaginative, d''autres membres et pléthore de notables et gens de maison, tous plus pittoresques, voire grotesques, les uns que les autres. Ce petit monde est régi par des rites et des traditions immuables et compliqués. L''histoire commence alors que naît Titus, 77e comte d''Enfer, dans l''indifférence générale. Parallèlement, le jeune Finelame s''échappe des cuisines où il était commis ; malin et manipulateur, il investit peu à peu le château et va en briser l''équilibre précaire, par l''incendie de la bibliothèque tout d''abord, qui va mener le comte à la folie, puis à la mort. C''est dans cet univers déconcertant, baroque, halluciné et presque maléfique que grandit Titus, qui s''accommode de plus en plus difficilement du cérémonial du protocole et rêve du monde extérieur, lui qui ne connaît que le château. Le dernier volet, Titus errant, le voit fuir Gormenghast et partir à la découverte d''un ailleurs qui lui est complètement étranger et dont il est exclu. Véritable monument de la littérature anglaise, le cycle de Gormenghast est l''exemple même de l''œuvre-culte, objet de vénération par plusieurs générations de lecteurs ; bien qu''il soit difficilement classable, le cycle s''apparente à la Fantasy pour l''univers extravagant qu''il décrit, même si la magie en est absente. L''auteur réussit le tour de force de bâtir une œuvre d''une incroyable richesse visuelle, à la fois angoissante et farfelue, poétique et désopilante. Elle est servie par la magnifique traduction de Patrick Reumaux, poète et romancier, qui signe également la préface.

A final volume of the classic Gormenghast novels, produced from recently discovered manuscripts written by Peake''s wife and based on his outlines, follows Titus'' nightmarish departure from Castle Gormenghast.

Quando, alla fine del secondo pannello della trilogia, il giovane Tito, signore di Gormenghast, trova la forza di strapparsi al suo reame, la cui bellezza si è ormai corrotta in cupa fatiscenza, le parole della madre – «Non esiste un altrove. Tutto conduce a Gormenghast» – sembrano richiudersi sulla sua fuga come una pietra tombale. Scoprirà che un altrove esiste, ma che è divorato non meno di Gormenghast dal Male: la città a cui approda è solcata dalle disumane meraviglie del controllo poliziesco – figure con l’elmetto che paiono scivolare sul terreno, sciami di velivoli senza pilota simili a equazioni di metallo, globi dalle viscere colorate quasi umane –, sottomessa a una scienza dispensatrice di morte. E nei cunicoli del Sottofiume vive una immane popolazione di reietti, fuggiaschi, falliti, mendicanti e cospiratori che non vedranno mai più la luce del sole. Scoprirà che al di là della sua nessun’altra realtà è per lui decifrabile, così come la sua è per gli altri inconcepibile: lontano da Gormenghast non c’è che l’ossessione del ricordo, e la follia. Dovrà, sorretto dall’aiuto di pochi – il gigantesco Musotorto, l’amorosa Giuna, i transfughi del Sottofiume Cancrello, Frombolo e Sbrago –, combattere, sfuggire a insidie, sottrarsi a ogni vincolo d’amore, amicizia e riconoscenza per conquistare l’unica verità che conti: «Era come una scheggia di pietra, ma dov’era la montagna dalla quale si era staccata?». Anche in questo terzo e ultimo volume la vastità di respiro e la potenza visionaria di cui Peake si mostra capace lasciano ammirati, dando ragione di ciò che asseriva C.S. Lewis: «I libri di Peake sono vere e proprie aggiunte alla vita; come certi sogni rari, ci offrono sensazioni che non abbiamo mai sperimentato, ampliando in noi la gamma delle esperienze possibili».

''Nonsense'', wrote Mervyn Peake, ''can take you by the hand and lead you nowhere. It''s magic.'' Peake (1911-68) is one of the great English nonsense poets, in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. His verses lead the reader into places where cause is cut free of effect and language takes on a giddy life of its own. Malicious bowler hats threaten their owners, a cake is chased across an ocean by a rakish knife, aunts become flatfish or live on sphagnum moss. Fully annotated, with a detailed introduction, Complete Nonsense contains all the poems and illustrations from Peake''s Book of Nonsense (1972), with forty unpublished poems discovered in manuscripts and thirty from uncollected sources, including all the nonsense verses from his novels. It reprints complete - for the first time and in colour - the words and images from Rhymes without Reason (1944), and Peake''s comic masterpiece Figures of Speech (1954). All the poems have been newly edited, often from Peake''s manuscripts, by Robert Maslen, editor of Peake''s Collected Poems (Carcanet), and Peter Winnington, the leading Peake scholar and biographer. Peake wrote of the rare art that glitters with the divine lunacy we call nonsense'': Complete Nonsense glitters with Peake''s benign and wayward imagination.

This edition of one of the classic masterpieces of illustration has been re-originated from Peakes original artwork and includes a selection of his remarkable working sketches never before published.Celebrating the centenary of Mervyn Peakes birth in 2011.

Schloss Gormenghast beherbergt das alte Geschlecht der Grafen von Groan. Hinter den Mauern geht die Zeit ihren eigenen Gang. Begleitet von rätselhaften Zeremonien pflegen die Schlossbewohner ihre Gewohnheiten. Im dritten Band verlässt Titus das Schloss, um die Welt kennen zu lernen. Mervyn Peakes zeitloses Meisterwerk ist das Vorbild für viele moderne Fantasy-Autoren.

Littérature jeunesse: album, pirate.

Gormenghast - das mächtige, labyrinthische Schloß, der Stammsitz der Grafen Groan, gehört zwar keiner Zeit an und keinem bestimmten Ort, doch so, wie Mervyn Peake seine phantastische Geschichte erzählt, bleibt weiter nichts unbestimmt ... Im Gegenteil: jede Szene wird grell ausgeleuchtet, wird geradezu furchterregend nahegerückt. Bewohnt wird das Schloß von erstaunlichen Figuren mit ausgesprochenen Mittelstandsallüren, die der Autor so dicht heranführt, daß man sie beinahe berühren könnte. Und den fetten Swelter zu berühren, die massige Lady Gertrude oder den spinnenhaften Mister Flay, das wäre in der Tat ein Schock. Ein Fantasyroman voll schillernder Figuren und einem labyrinthischen Schauplatz, der skurriler nicht sein könnte. Mervyn Peakes zeitloses Meisterwerk ist das Vorbild für viele moderne Fantasyautoren. »Gormenghast« ist von der Hand eines Zauberers geschrieben.

Gewalt und Gesetzlosigkeit breiten sich aus wie die Pest in den finsteren Kammern, den babylonischen Gängen, den kahlen, verlassenen Steinhöfen, den spinnwebverschleierten Dachböden Gormenghasts. Beunruhigende Ereignisse, unerklärliche Vorkommnisse tragen sich zu, verdichten sich und werden zu einer tödlichen Bedrohung für Titus, den jungen Grafen Groan, Herr über die geheimnisvollen Provinzen des Schlosses und ihre Bewohner. In einem grauenvollen Finale fällt schließlich die unerwartete Entscheidung. Ein Fantasyroman voll schillernder Figuren und einem labyrinthischen Schauplatz, der skurriler nicht sein könnte. Mervyn Peakes zeitloses Meisterwerk ist das Vorbild für viele moderne Fantasyautoren. »Gormenghast« ist von der Hand eines Zauberers geschrieben.

“A startling and unusual creation by an author who had imagination to burn and burn again . . . A feat of storytelling unmatched in wit or imagination.” —SFF180 The basis for the 2000 BBC series Now in development by Showtime As the novel opens, Titus, lord of Castle Gormenghast, has abdicated his throne. Born and brought to the edge of manhood in the huge, rotting castle, Titus rebels against the age-old ritual of which he is both lord and prisoner and rushes headlong into the world. From that moment forward, he is thrust into a stormy land of a dark imagination, where figures and landscapes loom up with the force and vividness of a dream—or a nightmare. This final installment in the Gormenghast Trilogy is a fantastic triumph—a conquest awash in imagination, terror, and charm. Praise the Gormenghast Trilogy “There is nothing in literature like Mervyn Peake’s remarkable Gormenghast novels . . . They were crafted by a master, who was also an artist, and they take us to an ancient castle as big as a city, with heroes and villains and people larger than life that are impossible to forget.” —Neil Gaiman “[Peake’s books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience.” —C. S. Lewis “Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It is a very, very great work.” —Robertson Davies, New York Times-bestselling author

A young earl’s future in a sprawling castle could be changed by a feral girl and a cunning servant in this acclaimed gothic fantasy trilogy’s second entry. Titus Groan is seven years old, lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, and death. Steerpike, who began his climb across the roofs when Titus was born, is now ascending the spiral staircase to the heart of the castle, and in his wake lie imprisonment, manipulation, and murder . . . Gormenghast is the second volume in Mervyn Peake’s widely acclaimed trilogy, but it is much more than a sequel to Titus Groan—it is an enrichment and deepening of that book. The Gormenghast Trilogy ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing. Praise for Gormenghast “Gormenghast is must-read fiction, that’s all. You’ll finish it with a small spike of regret stabbing at your heart, and a desire to start again at page one the moment the back cover is closed. It’s a tale to be cherished for life. This is as good as it gets.” —Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

First in the classic gothic trilogy. “A masterpiece . . . a moody, melancholy comedy with an underlying wit and profundity that cannot be denied.” —Speculiction The basis for the 2000 BBC series Now in development by Showtime As the novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born. He stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle. Meanwhile, far away and in the kitchen, a servant named Steerpike escapes his drudgework and begins an auspicious ascent to power. Inside of Gormenghast, all events are predetermined by complex rituals, the origins of which are lost in time. The castle is peopled by dark characters in half-lit corridors. Dreamlike and macabre, Peake’s extraordinary novel is one of the most astonishing and fantastic works in modern fiction. Praise the Gormenghast Trilogy “Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It is a very, very great work.” —Robertson Davies, New York Times-bestselling author “A sumptuous, poetic epic . . . considered by some to have an equal or even greater degree of importance to the development of modern fantasy as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” —SFF180 “Mervyn Peake’s gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle . . . This true classic is a feast of words unlike anything else in the world of fantasy. Those who explore Gormenghast castle will be richly rewarded.” —SFF Book Reviews

Six stories written across a range of genres and settings, including a macabre ghost story, and wry character studies drawn from the author''s life in London and on the island of Sark in the Channel Islands.

Summary: Uses cartoon-like drawings to represent such sayings as "Burning their bridges," "Sitting pretty," "To cut a long story short," and "I could just kick myself."

A story of the macabre and the chasms of the imagination. A gormenghast story. Older readers.