sentences:  He is father to Titus Groan and Fuchsia Groan, brother to Cora and Clarice Groan, and estranged husband to the Countess Gertrude.He is afflicted by an intense melancholia that leaves him psychologically paralyzed for most of the novel.The movements of his every waking hour are dictated by the "immemorial rites set down in the books of the lore of Groan", a canon of meaningless, endlessly cross-referenced and encoded ritual that forms the foundation of the decaying Gormenghast society.