Boy in Darkness and Other Stories - Softcover

Peake, Mervyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720613892 ISBN 13: 9780720613896

Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

A collection of stories and illustrations by the writer of classic literary fantasy, with the title novella an episode in the Gormenghast series—one of the most original and sustained flights of imaginative writing of the 20th century In cooperation with the Mervyn Peake Estate, this is a selection of long out-of-print short stories and more than 50 never before published illustrations by one of England's most unique and multi-talented artists. The title story will be of special interest to fans of the Gormenghast books, as it comprises a chapter in the life of Titus Groan that unfolds beyond the pages of Peake's monumental trilogy. A disturbingly atmospheric tale, told with the force and simplicity of allegory, "Boy in Darkness" distills the strange logic of the Gormenghast trilogy into a story of pith and mystery, which bears comparison with Kafka and Poe. Written across a range of genres, from a ghost story to wry character studies drawn from his life in London and on the Isle of Sark, the other tales in the volume reveal surprisingly different facets of Peake's uncanny imagination. Ultimately, the collection coheres through Peake's powers to enchant the mundane and to render the fantastic normal.

About this title

About the Author:

Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) was an English modernist writer, artist, poet, and illustrator who is best known for his pioneering Gormenghast series, which have become classics in the literary fantasy genre. He was also a noted illustrator of classic children's books including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Treasure Island. Sebastian Peake is Mervyn Peake's eldest son and the cocompiler of Mervyn Peake: A Man and His Art. Joanne Harris is the author of Blackberry Wine, Chocolat, Five Quarters of the Orange, and The Girl with No Shadow. Maeve Gilmore is Mervyn Peake's widow.

Review:

"An illustrator of the caliber of Goya, Cruikshank, Tenniel, Daumier, Doré, and Cocteau. . . . one of the most sensuous and mysterious English writers, a fantasist so concerned with color, sound, and light that they become actors in the fiction. Does anybody else write like this and so well?"  Booklist

"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience."  C. S. Lewis on The Gormenghast series

"There is no really close relative to it in all our prose literature. It is uniquely brilliant, and we are right to call it a modern classic."  Anthony Burgess on The Gormenghast series

This extravagant epic about a labyrinthine castle populated with conniving Dickensian grotesques is the true fantasy classic of our time."  —Washington Post Book World on The Gormenghast series

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0720613892
• ISBN 13: 9780720613896
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224