Gormenghast week 1

So it's Wednesday and time for the first installment of the Gormenghast read-along.  This read-along is hosted by Farm Lane Books, and it's early in the game, so if you want to play along, check it out!

This week:  Titus Groan
"The Hall of Bright Carvings" to "Near and Far"

Thusfar, we've met a number of wacky characters who could be real, though they would be more than a bit absurd or eccentric.  We first meet Mr. Rottcodd, who is the curator of the Hall of Bright Carvings, which consists of dusting the said carvings (though not the floor) daily, and spending the rest of the day napping in a hammock at the end of the Hall.  He is interrupted by Mr. Flay, the Earl's factotum, who tells him that a new heir to Gormenghast has been born.

Flay then delves into the kitchens where we meet the head chef, the disgusting and drunk Abiatha Swelter, and one of the kitchen boys, Steerpike who follows Flay through the corridors hoping to reach fresh air.

From their exchange we become privy to a conversation between the wonderfully named Dr. Prunesquallor and the 76th Earl of Groan.  The Earl laments the ugliness of the newborn, and Dr. Prunesquallor demonstrates his ineffectual-ness and his bizarre habit of laughing in the middle of whatever he happens to be saying.  They are interrupted by the 15 year-old Fuschia, the only other child of the Earl, who more or less pitches a tantrum when told that she does indeed now have a brother.

We learn about Fuschia's secret attic rooms and get a fairly good sense of her wild, willful, independent but childish character.  The only person who seems to care for Fuschia at all is Nannie Slagg, a doddering old nanny who is now charged with taking care of the new child, Titus.  Titus' mother, Lady Gertrude, busies herself with her wild birds and her albino cats and doesn't want to see the child again until he is six.

So far we have quite an interesting array of characters in a setting that is rendered evocatively through Peake's language.  The Washington Post's blurb on the back of my edition claims that fans maintain "that this extravagant epic about a labyrinthine castle populated with conniving Dickensian grotesques is the true fantasy classic of our time."  I thoroughly agree about the grotesques and the castle; in fact, the castle with its attendant ritual and rule, is practically a character in itself.

I'm having fun and looking forward to reading more.