... The madness is illusory, and control never falters. It is, if you
like, a rich wine of fancy chilled by the intellect to just the right
temperature. There is no really close relative to it in all our prose
literature. It is uniquely brilliant, and we are right to call it a modern
classic.
-- Anthony Burgess, in his 1988 introduction to Titus Groan

Am sunk happily in the second of the Gormenghast novels, Titus Groan. PBS filmed a series, but I cannot imagine this thick, inky world on film.

It confirms my itch to slam the door on the world.