Mervyn Peake Quotes
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Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. The three works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien, but Peake's 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. For a short time at the end of World War II he was commissioned by various newspapers to depict war scenes. A collection of his 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, the Imperial War Museum and The National Archives.

In 2008, The Times named Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Wikipedia

✵ 9. July 1911 – 17. November 1968 • Other names Мервін Пік, מרווין פיק

Mervyn Peake: 91 quotes 3 likes

Mervyn Peake Quotes

“They knew now that they could never accomplish that long carpet-journey with anything like Cutflower’s air, but he reminded them at every footstep, every inclination of the head, that the whole point of life was to be happy.”

Mervyn Peake

Source: Gormenghast (1950), Chapter 34 (p. 570)

Life , Happiness

“So you thought you’d come back, my wicked one. Where have you been?”
“In hell,” said Titus. “Swigging blood and munching scorpions.”
“That must have been great fun, my darling.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

“Not so,” said Titus, “hell is overrated.”
Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 42 (p. 881)

Hell

“I saw all of a sudden
No sign of any ship.”

Mervyn Peake

Poem O'er seas that have no beaches

““I am a beggar.”
“You are a travesty,” said Titus, “and when you die the earth will breathe again.””

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 16 (p. 829)

“And yet, though his eyes shone with the thrill of his discovery, he suffered at the same time a pang of resentment—a resentment that this alien realm should be able to exist in a world that appeared to have no reference to his home and which seemed, in fact, supremely self-sufficient.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 18 (p. 831)

World , Home , Suffering , Appearance

“This extreme air of abstraction, of empty and bland removedness, was almost terrifying. It was that kind of unconcern that humbled the ardent, the passionate of nature, and made them wonder why they were expending so much energy of body and spirit when every day but led them to the worms. Deadyawn, by temperament or lack of it, achieved unwittingly what wise men crave: equipoise.”

Mervyn Peake

Source: Gormenghast (1950), Chapter 11 (p. 441)

Men , Nature , Passion

““There’s something else, Mr. Muzzlehatch.”
“I’m sure there is. In fact there is everything else.””

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 47 (p. 893)

“It's not their fault if, in the heat
Of their transactions, I repeat
It's not their fault if vampires meet
And gurgle in their spats.”

Mervyn Peake

Poem The men in bowler hats are sweet

“Art should be artless, not heartless.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 24 (p. 845)

Art

“Other people’s faults can be fascinating. One’s own are dreary.”

Mervyn Peake

Source: Gormenghast (1950), Chapter 48 (p. 647)

People

“Let him play,” whispered Cheeta. “Let him make believe that he’s alive again.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 105 (p. 1000)

“For Peake, the weight of moral standards comes from their being part of a tradition, and any tradition lies outside the individual’s potential and needs. Thus adherence to a morality impedes development of the whole self and denies real maturity.”

Mervyn Peake

Joseph L. Sanders, “The Passions in Their Clay” Mervyn Peake’s Titus Stories, reprinted in the omnibus edition The Gormenghast Novels published by The Overlook Press, p. 1098

Self-confidence , Parting

“The host of specifically religious suggestions and images, in a story that until now has been devoid of such concern, suggests very strongly that Peake is here referring to the Christian religion as a debasing influence. Peake’s treatment of Gormenghast’s ritual shows that he dislikes any system of values imposed on the individual from outside, offering him nothing directly relevant for himself and encouraging him in whatever weakness he possesses. So, here, the Lamb can break down but not build; despite his worshipper’s praise, he does not really understand how to keep his creatures alive. Still the Lamb glories in his power. True, in changing men he has destroyed them, denying them freedom to develop for themselves; to the Lamb, however, that is incidental to his own gratification.”

Mervyn Peake

Joseph L. Sanders, “The Passions in Their Clay” Mervyn Peake’s Titus Stories, reprinted in the omnibus edition The Gormenghast Novels published by The Overlook Press, p. 1093

Religion , Understanding , Freedom , Men

“Change and growth cannot be halted, time must run on. That is the whole moral of the three books.”

Mervyn Peake

Colin Greenland, Beowulf to Kafka: Mervyn Peake’s Titus Alone, reprinted in the omnibus edition The Gormenghast Novels published by The Overlook Press, p. 1141

Books , Time , Change

“You are the first person who has been able to illustrate the book adequately since Tenniel, though I still argue as I think I argued with you years ago that your Alice is a little bit too much of a gamin.”

Mervyn Peake

Graham Greene, quoted in Bandersnatch, 151, July 2011, p. 8

Personality , Thinking , Books

“Words were shapes and sounds to him. He saw them, as if he were listening to an unknown language, in shapes.”

Mervyn Peake

Maeve Gilmore (his widow), Introduction to A Book of Nonsense, p. 10

“Mervyn Peake is a finer poet than Edgar Allan Poe, and he is therefore able to maintain his world of fantasy brilliantly through three novels. It (Gormenghast trilogy) is a very, very great work … a classic of our age.”

Mervyn Peake

Robertson Davies

World , Age

“His mind fell asleep. His wits fell awake. His cock trembled like a harp-string.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 42 (p. 881)

“Life must be various, incongruous, vile and electric. Life must be ruthless and as full of love as may be found in a jaguar’s fang.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

“I like the way you talk, young man,” said Grass, “but I don’t know what you’re saying.”
Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 24 (p. 841)

Love , Life , Making love

“Let go of my arm, or I will scream for God.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

“He never helped you. Have you forgotten?”
Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 56 (p. 910)

God