Scavenger-like faculty
No detail is too small to be filed in Steerpike's sharp, archival mind; all may prove useful for eventual manipulation,...
Firsthtly…
The chef is a Rabelasian character oozing excess, and none too likeable. The birth of Titus, 77th Earl of Gormenghast,...
Of sisters dissimilar
Dante meets the two sisters in Purgatory, and Leah describes, with Dantesque pithiness, the difference between them.
For other quotations...
Ballooning abdomen
Flay and Swelter, pitched in a life and death struggle, are at physically opposite extremes - Flay, wiry, knobbly, skinny,...
Good strong tea
A novel way to signal strong tea, its being so solid that it can support a mouse's weight. The more...
As warm as …
A surprising simile, something as ordinary and comforting as warm tea, here poured differently to describe a stream of blood. ...
Prunesquallor’s voice
The physician of Gormenghast is one of the most likeable, humane and sane of the colourful characters that people the...
From happiness to revolt
An intriguing view of happiness which would surely resonate with totalitarian regimes and dictatorial mindsets.
In this case and on...
The emptiness of exile
Flay has spent his whole life - a long one - in the stiflingly familiar circuits and rituals of serving...
Rain-thrashed pools
Gormenghast is made for storms and this one allows Steerpike to further insinuate himself into the life of the castle....
Sand-coloured teeth
What a compelling description of repellent dentistry. Twice Flay is described so, the second time being further likened to the...
Collective contentment
Among the most cherished beings in Mervyn Peake's sprawling, imaginative Gormenghast, are the teeming masses of white cats belonging to...
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