Books like gormenghast

Gormenghast is a fantasy series by British author Mervyn Peake, about the inhabitants of Castle Gormenghast, a sprawling, decaying, gothic-like structure. Originally conceived as a single on-going novel, the series was ended by Peake's death and comprises three novels, Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), Titus Alone (1959) and a novella, Boy in Darkness (1956), whose canonical status is debated. Peake was writing a fourth novel, Titus Awakes, at the time of his death in 1968; the book was later completed by Peake's widow in the early 70's, and after being discovered by her descendents it was published in 2009.

Although the first two installments do not contain any overtly fantastical elements, Gormenghast is almost unanimously categorized as fantasy because of the atmosphere and pseudo-medieval setting. The series has received widespread acclaim from the speculative fiction community and mainstream literary critics — Harold Bloom argues that it is a more accomplished work than the contemporary and better-known The Lord of the Rings.