Dandelion's blog

Jump to Comments

I was very pleased to investigate the information about Mervyn Peake from the Chronology pespective. This author turned out to be a genius of his times. He never limited himself at being only a novellist or only an artist. I think he was a wonderful personality beacause he managed to be a good father, good husband and a genius in his work.

Mervyn Peake was a great artist; we can judge about this from his self-portraits and from his works as a war artist (Dying girl, 1945). As an  illustrator, he started his work in 1940. He had some amazing works like :Life in Death, The ancient mariner, The ship’s crew. As a novelist he got famous with his intriguing trilogy Gormenghast. Peake also was a prolific poet. He published 4 collections of poems. He even wrote nonsense verse like Book of nonsense.

While doing my investigation I´ve discovered a very interesting website that discusses Peake´s writing. The author presents us an analysis to  The Titus Groan Novels.

I also found out that he had the Parkinson Syndrome and that there were made some kind of  “The Parkinson’s Disease Society Mervyn Peake Awards”. The PDS Mervyn Peake Awards are open to anyone with Parkinson’s living in the UK. The Awards recognises the talents of those affected by Parkinson’s in three categories: poetry, art and photography.

Mervyn Peake remains a fascinating, timeless artist for future generations to discover. At the heart of his work is a conviction, simplicity and love of life a world away from the plethora of 20th century writers concerned principly with their own cleverness and fame. Peake’s concerns were to reflect our world using his idosyncratic imagination. In doing so he created a beautifully grotesque world of his own which never falters or strays, which unfolds with exhilaration and a child-like wonder of being alive.