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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.

This volume contains three novels by English novelist Thomas Love Peacock, including “Headlong Hall”, “Nightmare Abbey”, and “Crotchet Castle”. Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English poet, novelist, and important figure in the East India Company. A good friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, they both had a significant influence on each other's work. Peacock was most famous for writing satirical novels, which usually involved characters sat around a table discussing contemporary philosophical ideas. This collection is not to be missed by lovers of Peacock's marvellous work, and it would make for a fine addition to any discerning bookshelf. Other notable works by this author include: “Maid Marian” (1822), “Gryll Grange” (1861), and “Melincourt” (1817). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with intoductory essays by Sir Walter Raleigh and Virginia Woolf.

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

This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, Christopher Glowry, is host to visitors who enjoy his hospitality and engage in endless debate. Among these guests are figures recognizable to Peacock’s contemporaries, including characters based on Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Glowry’s son Scythrop (also modeled on a famous Romantic, Peacock’s friend Percy Bysshe Shelley) locks himself up in a tower where he reads German tragedies and transcendental philosophy and develops a “passion for reforming the world.” Disappointed in love, a sorrowful Scythrop decides the only thing to do is to commit suicide, but circumstances persuade him to instead follow his father in a love of misanthropy and Madeira. In addition to satire and comic romance, Nightmare Abbey presents a biting critique of the texts we view as central to British romanticism. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a range of illuminating contemporary documents on the novel’s reception and its German and British literary contexts. A selection of Peacock’s critical and autobiographical writings is also included.

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.