The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

A beautiful fairytale filled with unexpected plot twists. Gormenghast is the vast, crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is lord and heir. Titus is expected to rule this gothic labyrinth of turrets and dungeons (and his eccentric and wayward subjects) according to strict age-old rituals, but things are changing in the castle.

Titus must contend with treachery, manipulation and murder as well as his own longing for a life beyond the castle walls.