Although the three current Gormenghast books are most often sold in a single bound together edition, Peake never intended to write a trilogy.  According to most reports he intended to write at least seven books following his protagonist, Titus Groan, from cradle to grave.

Atypically for the literature of the time (think Hemingway, Faulkner, et al) Peake wrote the Gormenghast books with a florid 19th century gothic sensibility.  His writing style was perfectly suited to a story starring a castle the size of a city, and a royal family with a tradition of heritage so entombed in ritual that every minute of every day is planned out centuries in advance.

Into this stagnant world is born Titus Groan, the heir to the throne, who is determined to live life and experience the world.  The first book strictly speaking only covers the first few years of Titus's life, and is more concerned with the issue of Steerpike, a scheming kitchen boy who is as clever as he is charming.

Steerpike's tour through the castle Gormenghast is engrossing, even if (or perhaps because) you can never quite decide whether you want to cheer Steerpike or smack him.  He is manipulative and intent on climbing the social ladder by any means necessary - but he also has no other option in life, beyond spending his entire life in the kitchen chopping carrots and sleeping on the floor until the day he dies of old age.

In the second book Gormenghast, Titus Groan takes the center stage.  He is sent to school, and has trials and tribulations there, all while dreading his inevitable return to the castle.  Meanwhile, Steerpike continues his slow-motion rampage through the monarchy.

The Gormenghast books (Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone) are a cult favorite among fantasy readers.  Written from 1946 to 1959, the series ended when the author died after a mental illness described at the time as a series of "nervous breakdowns" which was at one point treated with electroconvulsive therapy.  

Perhaps this helps explain the change that happens in the text from the second to the third book.  If you have not read the series, most people advise reading only the first two books, and not the third. Or reading the third, but mentally framing it as a sort of meaningless appendix to the first two books, like the deleted scenes on a DVD.

Earlier this week it was announced that a fourth Gormenghast book is scheduled to be published in 2011.  After Mervyn Peake died, his wife found a collection of manuscript notes and fragments.  She wrote a 200-page novel based on these notes.  Her novel (Titus Awakes) languished in someone's attic until it was recently dusted off by an heir and sold to a publishing company.

It's difficult to know whether Titus Awakes will be a good thing or a bad thing for the series.  After the third novel, which basically negates everything that is and happens in the first two novels, I guess I feel like "Anything goes."  At that point, why not, right?