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Mervyn Peake

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Born: July 08 1911

Died: 1616 11 19681968

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Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books, though the Titus books would be more accurate: the three works that exist were the beginning of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, following his protagonist Titus Groan from cradle to grave, but Peake's untimely death prevented completion of the cycle, which is now commonly but erroneously referred to as a trilogy. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J.R.R. Tolkien, but his surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology.

Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children , stage and radio plays, and Mr Pye, a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.

Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. A collection of these drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends included Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.

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Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Peake

Books from Mervyn Peake

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch

Mervyn Peake: Writings & Drawings

Complete Nonsense

Weird Shadows From Beyond: An Anthology of Strange Stories

Poetry of the Forties

The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Das große Buch der Fantasy

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Wonderful Life and Adventures of Tom Thumb - The Second Part (#2)

Boy in Darkness and Other Stories

Mr Pye

Peake's Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings

Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor

The Wonderful Life and Adventures of Tom Thumb (#1)

Boy in Darkness

The Gormenghast Novels

Shapes And Sounds

De bestemming

Collected Poems