As I may have mentioned before, I’m not too big of a fan of ranking, particularly when it comes to books. A book can be good, great, or bad, but in each of those categories it is unique in one way or another. At most, I can maybe group together books into the “great” category or try and pin down those that excel at a particular aspect of the craft, or sub-genre. When it comes to fantasy, however, I generally do answer that the best book I have ever read in that genre is, without a doubt, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast.

Among aficionados of fantasy, Gormenghast is often spoken of, in hushed tones of reverence or, more often, as a smug rebuttal to the assertions that another series might be the superior. Among many writers and critics, there seems to be no more exciting moment for them when they get to rebut the idea that Lord of the Rings must be their favourite work, proudly proclaiming that it was, in fact, Gormenghast that was their teacher.

I’ll maybe touch on the criticism of Lord of the Rings later on, but while I don’t wish to suborn Gormenghast into the mere role of proving what little credentials I have, I cannot deny that it is probably the best fantasy book ever. I see it as a little pointless to delve too deeply into its comparisons with Lord of the Rings, as they come from two completely different places. Tolkien was writing from a love of mythology, and Lord of the Rings is a triumph of worldbuilding. Gormenghast however, comes from a love of literature itself. I have heard the series described as “a collaboration between Shakespeare, Dickens and Kafka whilst all were under the influence of opium”, and that admittedly does capture a portion of the spirit.

Plot wise, the Gormenghast series is fairly simple, dealing with the inhabitants of the titular castle. The first book covers the birth of the new heir to Gormenghast, Titus Groan, and the second book with his maturation. The third novel takes place during Titus’s exile beyond the castle – Peake unfortunately died from dementia before any further works could be written. Interwoven with Titus’s life is the machinations of Steerpike, a kitchen boy who assumes more and more power within the social structure of the castle.

So what makes Gormenghast stand out to me as a work of fantasy then? For me, the fantasy genre interests me because it deals with the unreal but is created by those who dwell within reality. What delineates humans from animals is the ability to consider something that absolutely does not exist and communicate it through language – whether spoken, written or drawn. Fantasy is this skill used for art or entertainment, though we also use it to formulate other vital parts of our society that have no physical examples of them, such as our religion, ethics and philosophy. The furthest edges of the sciences also require these kinds of intuitive leaps into the darkness of “what might be.”

Good fantasy transports you to other worlds by presenting things that seem impossible or strange – the fantastical, as it were. What makes Gormenghast so special is that it relies very little on this. There is no magic, no strange creatures, no gods or demons. (In fact, the third book suggests that the castle exists within a world closer to the steampunk genre than anything else). And yet, every page is filled with the essence of the fantastical. Everything within Gormenghast is strange and exaggerated, from the characters to the castle itself. The fantasy is not coming from what the language is describing, but from the language itself. Peake is, in some ways, the reverse of Tolkien. In his work, Tolkien manages to take the vague and shifting meanings of mythology and crystalize them into a single, beautiful fantasy world. Conversely, Peake starts with English literature and renders it down, distilling it into a truly strange brew where the grotesque characters you might find in Dickens become even more grotesque – where the drama (comedy and tragedy alike) that you might find in Shakespeare becomes even more fierce or absurd.

Gormenghast, in this way, blew open the doors of my own perception of what fantasy could encompass, and remains a highly influential work for many within the genre. That said, I’m not sure it’s a book I would recommend casually. Many have accused it of being too dense and longwinded. This does not particularly bother me (I don’t particularly care where a book takes me, or how long it takes to get there, as long as the trip is interesting), but it may not be for everyone. If you’d like a test run, the BBC did a miniseries based on the books in 2000 that does condense the material considerably. You can also find Gormenghast’s influence across a slew of more contemporary works. I’d certainly check out China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station if you’d like a taste of such.

For me, Gormenghast is the peak of fantasy. There are other great books who have managed to bring a literary touch to the fantasy genre. Gormenghast, however, managed to steer literature right into the farthest depths of the fantastical. If anyone ever doubts that a fantasy work can have literary merit, Gormenghast remains to this day the most resounding counter argument.