In Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan, the story takes place in the enormous castle called Gormenghast.
Gormenghast is both a building and the center of an isolated aristocratic society governed by ancient rituals. The castle’s inhabitants follow elaborate ceremonies whose meanings have largely been forgotten, creating the novel’s distinctive atmosphere of decay, hierarchy, and grotesque tradition.
The title character, Titus Groan, is born as the seventy-seventh Earl of Gormenghast. His position places him at the heart of the castle’s succession system, even though he increasingly questions the customs imposed on him. The novel follows his early life alongside figures such as Steerpike, Swelter, and the Earl and Countess of Groan.
Gormenghast is sometimes used to refer to the entire fictional realm or to Peake’s trilogy, but in the novel it specifically names the castle and its surrounding domain. Titus Groan was published in 1946 and begins the Gormenghast series.