Oh Mervyn, you wonderful remarkable man.
Why do the critics refuse to write about your brilliance? It would make my life so much easier. Clearly the academics don't love Peake as much as I do because there is hardly anything out there.
I have just trawled the Internet for at least an hour, looking for books for my dissertation. Nearly every book of critical merit on Mervyn Peake is between forty and sixty pounds. Clearly, I do not have this kind of money to spend on them so I'm praying to the walls of Gormenghast that the library will be able to get them for me, otherwise I'm going to cry.
I managed to find one critical book, two biographies and another ambiguous text. Yes, ambiguous- it's around twenty years old so I couldn't really find a description but the listings on the Peake Papers website assures me it is both a critical exploration and a biography. I am honestly that desperate. I refuse to give up on Mervyn.
Gormenghast will be mine!
It was such a relief to find this post! I'm a 22 year old English lit student currently writing my dissertation on Gormenghast. Its difficult, and hard to get academics to take you seriously, but its worth it. My biggest help was getting in touch with Peter Winning ton who publishes Peake Studies - get a subscription and order some back issues if you haven't already! What is your diss title? So nice to find someone who shares my obsession with all things Peake :-)
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