Titus Groan

Titus Groan, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born. A Groan of the strict lineage, Titus the seventy-seventh, he will inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle, and its surrounding kingdom. His world will be predetermined by complex ritual, the origins which are lost in time; it will be peopled by the dark characters who inhabit the dark lit corridors. Lord Sepulchrave, a figment of melancholy, and his red-haired Countess; Swelter the chef and his bony enemy Flay; Prunesquallor, castle physician, and his etiolated sister, Irma; Steerpike, the Machiavellian youth.