Mervyn Peake's masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, is a gothic fantasy whose strange characters' lives are dominated by the labyrinthine castle of Gormenghast and its ancient rituals. Peake was also a brilliant artist which perhaps accounts for the unique visual intensity of his creation.
Mervyn Peake was born in China in 1911 of medical missionary parents. He began to draw, paint and write stories at an early age. His first book of poems, Shapes and Sounds, was published in 1941. He is probably best known for his Titus novels - Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone - but other well-known poetry collections include: The Glassblowers and The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb. He married Maeve Gilmore in 1937. He was awarded the W.H. Heinemann Foundation Prize by the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. Mervyn Peake died after a long illness in 1968.
Genres: Fantasy
Series
Gormenghast
1. Titus Groan (1946)
2. Gormenghast (1950)
3. Titus Alone (1959)
4. Titus Awakes (2011) (with Maeve Gilmore)
1. Titus Groan (1946)
2. Gormenghast (1950)
3. Titus Alone (1959)
4. Titus Awakes (2011) (with Maeve Gilmore)
Novels
Collections
Ride a Cock-Horse (1940)
Shapes and Sounds (1941)
Rhymes Without Reason (poems) (1944)
The Glassblowers (poems) (1950)
The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (poems) (1962)
Poems and Drawings (poems) (1965)
A Reverie of Bone (poems) (1967)
The Inner Landscape (1969) (with Brian Aldiss and J G Ballard)
Selected Poems (poems) (1972)
A Book of Nonsense (poems) (1972)
Writings and Drawings (1974)
Twelve poems (poems) (1975)
Peake's Progress (1978) (with Maeve Gilmore)
Boy in Darkness and Other Stories (2007)
Collected Poems (poems) (2008)
Complete Nonsense (poems) (2011) (with Robert Maslen and G Peter Winnington)
Shapes and Sounds (1941)
Rhymes Without Reason (poems) (1944)
The Glassblowers (poems) (1950)
The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (poems) (1962)
Poems and Drawings (poems) (1965)
A Reverie of Bone (poems) (1967)
The Inner Landscape (1969) (with Brian Aldiss and J G Ballard)
Selected Poems (poems) (1972)
A Book of Nonsense (poems) (1972)
Writings and Drawings (1974)
Twelve poems (poems) (1975)
Peake's Progress (1978) (with Maeve Gilmore)
Boy in Darkness and Other Stories (2007)
Collected Poems (poems) (2008)
Complete Nonsense (poems) (2011) (with Robert Maslen and G Peter Winnington)
Picture Books
Novellas
Non fiction
The Craft of the Lead Pencil (1946)
Drawings (1949)
Figures of Speech (1954)
The Sunday Books (2011) (with Michael Moorcock)
Drawings (1949)
Figures of Speech (1954)
The Sunday Books (2011) (with Michael Moorcock)
Anthologies containing stories by Mervyn Peake
Spectrum 3 (1963)
Everyman's Book of Classic Horror Stories (1965)
The Unfriendly Future (1965)
Weird Shadows from Beyond (1965)
Terror! (1966)
One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1968)
Modern Science Fiction (1974)
The Best Science Fiction Stories (1977)
The Golden Age of Science Fiction (1981)
The Flying Sorcerers (1997)
The Road to Science Fiction 5 (1998)
Knights of Madness (1998)
Everyman's Book of Classic Horror Stories (1965)
The Unfriendly Future (1965)
Weird Shadows from Beyond (1965)
Terror! (1966)
One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1968)
Modern Science Fiction (1974)
The Best Science Fiction Stories (1977)
The Golden Age of Science Fiction (1981)
The Flying Sorcerers (1997)
The Road to Science Fiction 5 (1998)
Knights of Madness (1998)
Short stories
Danger: Religion! (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and J G Ballard) | |||
Boy in Darkness [short story] (1956) (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and J G Ballard) | |||
The Voices of Time [short story] (1960) (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and J G Ballard) | |||
Danse Macabre (1963) | |||
Same Time, Same Place (1963) | |||
The Party at Lady Cusp-Canine's (1969) |
Books about Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake (1977) by John Watney
Exhibition of Manuscripts, Drawings, Illustrations (1978) by Maeve Gilmore
The Fantasts (1984) by Edmund Little
Child of Bliss (1989) by Maeve Gilmore and Sebastian Peake
A World Away (1992) by Maeve Gilmore
The Art of Gormenghast (2000) by Estelle Daniel
Vast Alchemies (2000) by G Peter Winnington
My Eyes Mint Gold (2000) by Malcolm Yorke
Mervyn Peake: A Memoir (2007) by Michael Moorcock
Exhibition of Manuscripts, Drawings, Illustrations (1978) by Maeve Gilmore
The Fantasts (1984) by Edmund Little
Child of Bliss (1989) by Maeve Gilmore and Sebastian Peake
A World Away (1992) by Maeve Gilmore
The Art of Gormenghast (2000) by Estelle Daniel
Vast Alchemies (2000) by G Peter Winnington
My Eyes Mint Gold (2000) by Malcolm Yorke
Mervyn Peake: A Memoir (2007) by Michael Moorcock
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