Titus Alone

Titus Alone is the third book in the Gormenghast series of works, written by Mervyn Peake.

Related Topics:
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake

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The story follows Titus' journey in the world outside Gormeghast Castle, having left his home at the end of the second book.

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Finding himself lost, he suddenly discovers exactly how backwater his home really was, as he stumbles into a city of strange technological marvels, of shimmering metal and glass buildings, whose inhabitants travel by motorcar and airplane ? and yet which also houses an entire culture of outcasts beneath the city itself in the "Under-River". The book also includes themes more usual to dystopian Science-Fiction, such as marked inequality of wealth and involuntary euthanasia.

Related Topics:
Dystopian - Science-Fiction

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Titus, wandering the nameless city, finds himself doggedly pursued by two mysterious helmeted figures and a shadowy "policeman" who is tracking him with nearly Javert-like tenacity for simple vagrancy. Befriending a local zookeeper, Muzzlehatch, and his former lover, Juno, Titus nevertheless finds himself more lost than ever, lacking any real sense of identity or direction.

Related Topics:
Muzzlehatch - Juno

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This last book is a strange and unpolished work, due to Peake's illness during its writing. The book's subsequent publication was met with scathing rejection by critics. Unlike Peake's earlier Gormenghast works, no dramatization of Titus Alone has ever been produced.

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Having said this, an air of disbelief and unreality permeates the book, echoing the mind-state of Titus as he comes to grips with a world that has an existence beyond any reference that he has ever known.

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