Titus Alone (Gormenghast #3) by Mervyn Peake

Format: Audio (Audible)
Read: October 2026

I knew that the third and final book in the series would be a departure from the previous two, and so I was prepared to leave Gormenghast. To me, this felt like a natural progression for both Titus and the overall story, as the castle didn’t feel like it had any more to offer for either. Although that isn’t to say I didn’t miss the old characters, especially my favourites, the Prunesquallors.

And so, Titus has left his heritage and his domain and travelled far away to a surprisingly modern world with cars, electricity, factories and science. A place where nobody had heard of Gormenghast and most people think him a mad fantasist. If this sounds scarily different, don’t worry; this is still a very ‘Peakian’ world where things are a bit strange, and the characters are still batshit crazy in one way or another.

This Modern world most obviously contrasts the staleness and never-ending, never-changing ritual traditions of Gormenghast. But it also has ominous dark elements such as secret police, laser weapons and a mysterious factory led by The Scientist that instantly put me in mind of concentration camps, even if Peake never explains what it is for and who the people who work there are.

I didn’t enjoy this as much, and I think largely that is because it’s mostly focused on Titus, and I have never enjoyed him or really understood him as a character. He’s a teenage boy, so there is a lot of him being horny, and also changing his mind every 5 minutes. The previous two books didn’t have any direct references to sex, so I was a bit taken aback!

I won’t pretend that I understand this one! I have a vibe of what I think Peake was going for (certainly tension between the past and the future, and not overvaluing either), but I definitely need to reread and pay close attention, and see if I can work out what the different characters might mean. In particular, the relationship between Cheeta, the Scientist’s daughter, and Titus was confusing and annoying. Juno happily taking up with what seems to be a stalker, Anchor, was also… Interesting. I’m not entirely sure what Peake was trying to say! I believe he was already suffering from early-onset dementia while working on this, so I don’t know how much that has affected it.

Still, I’m so happy I’ve finally read this series! It’s so unique, and I’m going to be spotting Peake’s influence everywhere from now on.

I’ve already got too many grand plans for reading next year, but rereading these ‘properly’ in print is definitely included! The audiobooks, read by Saul Reichlin, are fabulous and highly recommended, but I know I can’t take it all by just listening.

For Law of Fives, this is the last book in the series.