This is the first book to offer a literary analysis of Peacock's novels, including the two ironic medieval romances Maid Marian and The Misfortunes of Elphin. Other works included are Headlong Hall, Melincourt, Nightmare Abbey, Crotchet Castle, The Romances and Gryll Grange.

Excerpt from Thomas Love Peacock: A Critical Study Yet as we piece together the scanty and ln sufiicient notices, Shelley's discarded theory hovers near and obtrudes itself at intervals, now calling for confirmation, now emphasising a remarkable contradiction, and anon arresting the attention at some hardly noticeable cir cumstance, asking whether or no this is a true instance of the manifestation of the principle. There is a strange congruence, a harmonious cohesion in some of his otherwise unrelated actions, utterances and aspirations, as though Nature and Fortune, making use of him some times as a confederate and at other moments as an unconscious agent, were striving to impart to his 'fe, with its experiences and accomplish ments, that unity which he as a philosopher would have approved, and which seems so signally lacking in the careers of most men, whose history more often presents a uniformity of aimlessness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A satire on Byronism and pessimism in general. A gathering of eccentric characters in a country house, including Mr Glowry, his son Scythrop and Mr Toobad, leads to a series of absurd incidents.