Peake's Progress


Book Description

COLLECTIONS & ANTHOLOGIES OF VARIOUS LITERARY FORMS. Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) the immensely talented writer, artist, poet and playwright,is best-known for his gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, and his stunning illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass. He was a prolific and astonishingly original writer, who touched at one time or another on almost every literary form. Peake's Progress is a selection, compiled by his widow, Maeve Gilmore, from every period of his work as writer and draughtsman. It contains a remarkable work from childhood, 'The White Chief of the Umzimbooboo Kaffirs', the early 'Mr. Slaughterboard', which foreshadows the 'Titus' books, two plays, 'The Wit to Woo' and 'Noah's Ark', a broadcast version of 'Mr Pye', and a generous selection from Peake's short stories, poems and nonsense verses as well as from his drawings.




Peake's Progress


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The Voice of the Heart


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The profoundly creative works of Mervyn Peake have fascinated readers for decades. His Gormenghast sequence of novels, recently serialized to great acclaim by the BBC, stands as one of the great imaginative accomplishments of twentieth-century literature. In The Voice of the Heart, G. Peter Winnington, the world’s foremost expert on Peake, explores his subject’s well-known fiction alongside the poetry, plays, and illustrations for which Peake is equally lauded. He traces recurrent motifs through Peake’s works and examines in detail his long-neglected play, The Wit to Woo. Through close readings of all these elements of Peake’s oeuvre, Winnington ultimately offers unparalleled insight into one of British literature’s most vibrant imaginations.




Gormenghast


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Titus Groan


Book Description

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




Titus Awakes


Book Description

The final novel of the acclaimed fantasy series continues the adventures of Titus, Earl of Groan, completed by the author’s widow based on his fragments. Mervyn Peake’s series of novels featuring the inhabitants of Gormenghast castle are “a work of extraordinary imagination.” After Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone, Peake was working on a fourth chapter in the series before his death. Maeve Gilmore, Mervyn Peake's widow, wrote Titus Awakes based on those pages left behind by Peake (The New Yorker). Titus Awakes picks up the story of Titus, 77th Earl of Groan, as he wanders through the modern world. Fans of the Gormenghast novels will relish this continuation of the world Peake created and of the lives of unforgettable characters from the original novels, including the scheming Steerpike, Titus's sister Fuchsia, and the long-serving Dr. Prunesquallor. Published a century after Peake's birth, this strikingly original novel provides a moving coda to Peake's masterwork.




Islandia


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Published 11 years after the author's death, this classic of utopian fiction tells the story of American consul John Lang. He visits the isolated and alien country of Islandia and is soon seduced by the ways of a compelling and fascinating world.




Ask an Astronaut


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The awe-inspiring Sunday Times Bestseller from astronaut Tim Peake Shortlisted for the British Book Award 2018 'Amazing . . . A brilliant book' Chris Evans, BBC Radio 2 Have you ever thought of becoming an astronaut? Ask an Astronaut is Tim Peake's personal guide to life in space, based on his historic Principia mission, and the thousands of questions he has been asked since his return to Earth. How does it feel to orbit the earth ten times faster than a speeding bullet? What's it like to eat, sleep and go to the toilet in space? And where to next - the moon, mars or beyond? From training to launch, historic spacewalk to re-entry, Tim has a fascinating answer to everything you ever wanted to know. He reveals for readers of all ages the extraordinary secrets, cutting-edge science, and everyday wonders of life onboard the International Space Station. 'Everything you ever wanted to know about life in space' Times




New Makers of Modern Culture


Book Description

New Makers of Modern Culture will be widely acquired by both higher education and public libraries. Bibliographies are attached to entries and there is thorough cross- referencing.




The Gormenghast Novels


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A doomed lord, an emergent hero, an array of bizarre creatures, and an ancient royal family plagued by madness and intrigue--these are the denizens of ancient, sprawling, tumbledown Gormenghast Castle. Within its vast halls and serpentine corridors, the members of the Groan dynasty and their master Lord Sepulchrave grow increasingly out of touch with a changing world as they pass their days in unending devotion to meaningless rituals and arcane traditions. Meanwhile, an ambitious kitchen boy named Steerpike rises by devious means to the post of Master of the Ritual while he maneuvers to bring down the Groans.In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream: lush, fantastical, vivid; a symbol of dark struggle. Accompanying the text are Peake's own drawings, illustrating the whole assembly of strange creatures that inhibit Gormenghast.Breathtaking in its power and drenched in dark atmosphere, humor and intrigue, The Gormenghast Trilogy is a classic, one of the great works of 20th century British literature.