Titus Groan & Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
Language: EnglishKeywords:
Gormenghast
Mervyn Peake
sting
titus groan
Shared by:Kruppe
Written by
Read by Michael Williams / Full cast
Format: MP3
Abridged
A couple of versions of Mervyn Peake’s ‘Titus Groan’ and ‘Gormenghast’ here, all from cassette releases that have never resurfaced as CDs or digital versions.
The first version is the BBC radio dramatization (by Brian Sibley) from 1984. The cast includes Freddie Jones, Eleanor Bron, David Warner and Sting. Two 90-minute plays, chopped into halves of 45 minutes each to fit on the tapes.
The second lot is the abridged Penguin Modern Classics audiobooks from the late 1990s, read by the British actor Michael Williams. They run about six hours each. These were kind of immediately redundant since they were released in the dying days of cassettes and at the same time as an unabridged release by another publisher. So they’re quite obscure, but I like Williams’ voice (he was a great Dr Watson on BBC radio too) and always enjoyed them.
I notice from the comments that some people seem not to know what these books are and who Mervyn Peake was. Apologies – apparently they aren’t as famous as I thought. Maybe it’s a UK vs. US thing. They’re quite literary British fantasy fiction, written in 1946 and 1950. The books take place in Gormenghast itself, which is a massive castle essentially the size of a city, populated with Dickensian grotesques. Titus Groan is the nominal protagonist, younger brother of Fuchsia Groan, and the son and heir of the 76th Earl of Groan, Lord Sepulchrave. The books begin with his birth and follow him through gothic dramas and political machinations to his late adolescence. ‘Titus Groan’ is the first book and ‘Gormenghast’ its sequel. They’re arguably as much about the antagonist, Steerpike, and his attempted rise to power as they are about Titus himself. Steerpike’s story is complete in these two books, which are both brilliant.
Peake was an English author, artist and poet. He intended the adventures of Titus beyond the castle to be a much longer series, but he was profoundly affected by his experiences in WWII and his physical and mental health deteriorated to the extent that he died at the age of 57 before completing the third book, ‘Titus Alone’. That one was assembled by editors and published posthumously (first in 1959 and again in altered form in 1970). Peake’s wife Maeve Gilmore wrote a fourth book, ‘Titus Awakes’ (published 2011 but written in the ’70s), based on a further fragment left by Peake.
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| Creation Date: | Wed, 29 Aug 2018 05:00:35 -0400 |
| This is a Multifile Torrent | |
| Gormenghast 01 Side One.mp3 41.93 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 02 Side Two.mp3 42.45 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 03 Side Three.mp3 42.88 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 04 Side Four.mp3 42.49 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 05 Side Five.mp3 42.77 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 06 Side Six.mp3 41.78 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 07 Side Seven.mp3 42.72 MBs | |
| Gormenghast 08 Side Eight.mp3 42.15 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 01 Side One.mp3 43.67 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 02 Side Two.mp3 43.19 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 03 Side Three.mp3 41.91 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 04 Side Four.mp3 42.19 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 05 Side Five.mp3 42.81 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 06 Side Six.mp3 42.85 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 07 Side Seven.mp3 40.46 MBs | |
| Titus Groan 08 Side Eight.mp3 39.78 MBs | |
| Titus Groan & Gormenghast (BBC) 01 Titus Groan Side One.mp3 41.38 MBs | |
| Titus Groan & Gormenghast (BBC) 02 Titus Groan Side Two.mp3 40.36 MBs | |
| Titus Groan & Gormenghast (BBC) 03 Gormenghast Side One.mp3 41 MBs | |
| Titus Groan & Gormenghast (BBC) 04 Gormenghast Side Two.mp3 40.89 MBs | |
| Combined File Size: | 839.64 MBs |
| Piece Size: | 512 KBs |
| Comment: | Updated by AudioBook Bay |
| Encoding: | UTF-8 |
| Info Hash: | 073b8af6b7407e7f0753577254f29446188ad778 |
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This post has 9 comments with rating of 5/5
August 29th, 2018
What an interesting set of files! And yes, Michael Williams is a sad loss; a talented actor who could make the thinnest material into real substance. Peake of course is hardly thin. Thanks.
August 29th, 2018
Remember reading these back in the 80s and enjoying them…thanx for this….
August 29th, 2018
Author Summary — Starts with the birth and ends with the first birthday celebrations of the heir to the grand, tradition-bound castle of Gormenghast. A grand miasma of doom and foreboding weaves over the sterile rituals of the castle. Villainous Steerpike seeks to exploit the gaps between the formal rituals and the emotional needs of the ruling family for his own profit.
August 29th, 2018
Which made it sound boring. But wiki said it was a top 100 fantasy book. The first “fantasy of manners”. The protagonists are not pitted against fierce monsters or marauding armies, but against their neighbors and peers; the action takes place within a society, rather than being directed against an external foe; duels may be fought, but the chief weapons are wit and intrigue. Like a Jane Austen influenced fantasy series.
August 29th, 2018
I’m looking to find good quality copies of the books in the unabridged format. There was a torrent of them unabridged, but the sound was terrible.
August 30th, 2018
Good description markpollack - I remember reading only the first two (unabridged) back in the ’90s. The author’s mental state sadly deteriorated while writing the third book.
August 30th, 2018
Apologies for not adding a synopsis before. I assumed everyone knew these books, but apparently not (they’re hardly obscure though, I hope). Have added some additional info to the text box for Peake newcomers.
September 1st, 2018
Thank you for sharing. I remember buying Gormenghast (British + British-named fictional places always sound interesting, don’t you think?) from a used books bookstore and I haven’t really have the time to just sit down and read, hence, my preference (and love) for audiobooks (they’re perfect for when you’re painting). So thanks again.
January 21st, 2023
thank you so very much ! I have been looking for the Michael Williams reading for such a long time after my original set of cassette tapes gave out. MW was truly sublime impersonating the manifold cast of Gormenghast as well as the esteemed Dr. John Watson.
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