An over descriptive, very long farce. That lacks.

I'm so glad for audio books, I would have never finished reading it. In short this is how I found the book. The characters (all of them) are not very nice, almost Dickensian, but in a more sinister way. The humour is subtle quite droll and never a belly laugh. The main character Steerpike is to be honest just manipulating the privileged morons about him. But the way its written is the hardest thing to describe. Its very verbose, over descriptive about everything, the expressions of the characters is usually very clever, sometimes humorous but always so, so long. All in all. Titus Groan is a novel that takes an eternity to tell a very simple story due to the very stylised way the author wrote the book. Written in the 50s it just wouldn't survive today, especially without audio books, me thinks.

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Absolutely Brilliant

This a book like no other. It has no real plot to speak of, but a series of set pieces that move around it's weird, odd ball characters of gormenghast a dark old gothic Castle which is a character is self. Peake has created a masterpiece of imaginary fiction it feels like every word is meticulously placed and at times so poetically written. It's superbly read by Saul Reichlin who really know how to voice characters and he appears to have a great affinity with the work to do it Justice. l have both the other two books downloaded in the trilogy if you want to read something that is very hard to forget then digest, absorb and enjoy 5 🌟stars
Andrew

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An extraordinary achievement

Peake’s trilogy is a masterpiece. If you like juicy pros, then the Gormenghast trilogy is a good place to visit. The narration is masterful. I encourage anyone who may be put off by what may at first appear to be a performer getting carried away in doing ‘silly voices’ to stick with it. Saul Reichlin did his homework. Peake’s incredible powers of description furnish the attentive reader with all the clues they need to conjure the vividness of every character, including their voices. Reichlin clearly researched every character’s vocal inflections based on Peake’s own description and remains entirely consistent throughout. I bought a physical copy of the books to read alongside the narration. Just because the pros are so wonderful. Bravo!

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Beautiful visual descriptions and bizarre characters

This is my favourite book, I've read and listened to Gormenghast repeatedly. The performance is great but a few of the voices put me off and broke the magic for me in places.

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4 people found this helpful

Superb narration.

Saul Reichlin's performance is outstanding. His ability to give character to both male and female voices, young and old, (without once sinking to the cheap recourse of regional dialects) is second to none. (Based on this, I'd love to hear Reichlin read other books with multiple voices - Song of Ice and Fire, for example, the audio version of which is so irritating I returned it half way through Book 1, or His Dark Materials).
I very much hope Reichlin will be recording Titus Alone, to complete the trilogy.
If you're reading this, Saul Reichlin - congratulations, and thank you!

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Utterly enchanting

One of the greatest gothic stories of C20, perfectly interpreted. Can't wait to listen to the next novel

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narrators impressions of prunesqualor irritating

read this 25 years ago. just wanted to listen to the story again...but for some reason the narrator lapses into silly voices. i would prefer a narrator not a performer and let my imigination fill in the gaps.

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2 people found this helpful

It is gust so good!!!

Enjoy some of the best ever story telling by an author and reader unsurpassed (possibly)

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A very good reading of this

I really enjoyed this reading. Saul Reichlin very easily depicts this world and had a real appreciation for this story.

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3 people found this helpful

great narration brings the characters to life

I first read this classic as a teenager and remembered liking it but didn't remember the story. the writing style is unique and the narration brings it to life vividly so you can picture each scene and appreciate the subtle homour. Can't wait to get on with the next installment.

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1 person found this helpful