{"product_id":"titus-groan-mervyn-peake-1st-edition","title":"Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake — 1st Edition","description":"\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb data-path-to-node=\"2\" data-index-in-node=\"40\"\u003ePublication\u003c\/b\u003e: London, Eyre \u0026amp; Spottiswoode, 1946\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb data-path-to-node=\"2\" data-index-in-node=\"87\"\u003eFormatting\u003c\/b\u003e: 8vo, pp. 438.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"2\"\u003e\u003cb data-path-to-node=\"2\" data-index-in-node=\"113\"\u003eCondition Report\u003c\/b\u003e: Very Good. The original red cloth binding remains tight and square, though the spine exhibits characteristic sun-fading, rendering the gilt titling slightly dulled but entirely legible. The boards show minor rubbing and light bumping to the head and tail of the spine and corners. Internally, the text block is securely bound. Printed under post-war authorised economy standards, the paper stock shows inevitable, yet mild, even toning and some light spotting to the text block edges, though the interior pages remain largely bright, clean, and free of foxing. An earlier owner has neatly inscribed their name in pencil to the front free endpaper. While the book lacks its dust jacket, a neatly clipped front flap from the original jacket, bearing the 15s. price and publisher's blurb, has been retained and laid in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"3\"\u003e\u003cb data-path-to-node=\"3\" data-index-in-node=\"0\"\u003eCatalogue Note\u003c\/b\u003e: First edition, first printing (dated MCMXLVI on the copyright page). This inaugural volume of the Gormenghast trilogy was produced strictly under the 'Authorised Economy Standards' of post-WWII Britain, making copies in robust, unsplit condition increasingly difficult to source due to the inherently fragile nature of the wartime materials used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"4\"\u003eWhile this copy lacks the notoriously scarce dust jacket, it notably retains the original clipped front flap, which serves as an excellent bibliographical reference point alongside a discreet contemporary ownership signature. An essential and foundational cornerstone of 20th-century gothic fantasy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"5\"\u003eEnter the sprawling, decaying, and claustrophobic world of Gormenghast Castle, a vast, isolated edifice governed by archaic, suffocating rituals and populated by a cast of eccentric inhabitants. In this visionary first instalment of Mervyn Peake’s masterwork, the birth of Titus, the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan, disrupts the stagnant, centuries-old order of the castle. As the ambitious and Machiavellian kitchen boy Steerpike plots his ruthless, blood-soaked ascent to power, the denizens of Gormenghast—from the melancholic Lord Sepulchrave to the feral Countess Gertrude and her beloved white cats—are swept into a dark, gothic epic of political intrigue, madness, and grotesque beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Broadhursts Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55733848768851,"sku":"6807","price":68.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/1469\/6787\/files\/20261102_094735.jpg?v=1793788365","url":"https:\/\/broadhurstsbooks.com\/products\/titus-groan-mervyn-peake-1st-edition","provider":"Broadhursts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}