Think humor writing is solely the province of modern writers? Think again. The early nineteenth-century novel Headlong Hall is a hilarious foray into the world of the British upper class, where well-funded heirs have nothing but time on their hands to pursue increasingly bizarre hobbies and interests. In Headlong Hall, a group of these obsessives is gathered together at the lavish Welsh estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq. and, predictably, things don't exactly go swimmingly.

Thomas Love Peacock was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. "Headlong Hall" like most of Peacock's novels, assembles a group of characters who discuss topics that were then of interest to Peacock and his circle of intellectual friends. Peacock uses the work to parody contemporary thinking in a variety of disparate areas, including utilitarianism, vegetarianism, aesthetics, music, poetry, art criticism, and so on.

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Peacock's first novel is situated within its literary and historical contexts via a substantial introduction, generous notes, and annotated appendices.