Background
Peacock was born on October 18, 1785 in Weymouth, Dorset, the son of Samuel Peacock and his wife Sarah Love, daughter of Thomas Love, a retired master of a man-of-war in the Royal Navy.
(NIGHTMARE ABBEY AND OTHER NOVELS includes five works by n...)
NIGHTMARE ABBEY AND OTHER NOVELS includes five works by noted Victorian Gothic satirist Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866). While Peacock wrote in the Gothic tradition, he used it to satirize contemporary British society, criticizing class distinctions, philosophy, religion, and Victorian morality. His most famous work, NIGHTMARE ABBEY, pokes fun at the Romantic movement's fascination with misanthropy, the supernatural, and transcendental philosophy through the agency of a reclusive widower, Christopher Glowry, Esquire, and his only son, Scythrop who live alone in dilapidated mansion. Nightmare Abbey Crotchet Castle Gryll Grange Headlong Hall Maid Marian
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008K3TUFK/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084B6S4O/?tag=2022091-20
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1375013726/?tag=2022091-20
(HEADLONG HALL. NIGHTMARE ABBEY. MAID MARIAN. CROTCHET CAS...)
HEADLONG HALL. NIGHTMARE ABBEY. MAID MARIAN. CROTCHET CASTLE. WITH CORRECTIONS, AND A PREFACE, BY THE AUTHOR. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH} J. CUMMING, DUBLIN. 1837. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451016506/?tag=2022091-20
(Literally dozens of Robin Hood books have been written ov...)
Literally dozens of Robin Hood books have been written over the centuries. Beginning with the original ballads they continue through modern day reworkings. Thomas Love Peacock's "Maid Marian", originally published in 1822, is a favorite Robin Hood volume. It's an anachronistic and unusual and ridiculous and very witty re-imagining, with Matilda Fitzwater (Maid Marian) at the center. Peacock takes great liberties with the legends, crafting a book that is social commentary, comedy, and love letter to the old tales and to England. Lovers of the Prince of Thieves will likely find this an enjoyable diversion.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014BXFS9O/?tag=2022091-20
(Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock is his fourth long wor...)
Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock is his fourth long work of fiction first published in 1822. This is a classic that has been enjoyed by many for generations. Any profits generated from the sale of this book will go towards the Freeriver Community project, a project designed to promote harmonious community living and well-being in the world. To learn more about the Freeriver project please visit the website - www.freerivercommunity.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533096716/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030830257/?tag=2022091-20
(1994 Folio Society hardcover. Thomas Love Peacock (Maid M...)
1994 Folio Society hardcover. Thomas Love Peacock (Maid Marian). Nightmare Abbey is a Gothic topical satire in which the author pokes light-hearted fun at the romantic movement in contemporary English literature, in particular its obsession with morbid subjects, misanthropy and transcendental philosophical systems. Most of the characters in the novella are based on historical figures whom Peacock wishes to pillory. Insofar as Nightmare Abbey may be said to have a plot, it follows the fortunes of Christopher Glowry, Esquire, a morose widower who lives with his only son Scythrop in his semi-dilapidated family mansion Nightmare Abbey, which is situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens in Lincolnshire. - Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035WLQR6/?tag=2022091-20
( This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, ...)
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 Peacocks contemporaries, including characters based on Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Glowrys son Scythrop (also modeled on a famous Romantic, Peacocks 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 novels reception and its German and British literary contexts. A selection of Peacocks critical and autobiographical writings is also included.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155111416X/?tag=2022091-20
(This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, Chr...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/151758910X/?tag=2022091-20
(Crotchet Castle Gryll Grange Headlong Hall Maid Marian Ni...)
Crotchet Castle Gryll Grange Headlong Hall Maid Marian Nightmare Abbey
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DR3I4S/?tag=2022091-20
(Excerpt from Rhododaphne, or the Thessalian Spell: A Poem...)
Excerpt from Rhododaphne, or the Thessalian Spell: A Poem The belief in the supernatural powers of music and pharmacy ascends to the earliest ages of poetry. Its most beautiful forms are the Circe of Homer, and Medea, in the days of her youth, as she appears in the third book of Apollonius. 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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0331617676/?tag=2022091-20
(Thomas Love Peacock (18 octobre 1785 - 23 janvier 1866) e...)
Thomas Love Peacock (18 octobre 1785 - 23 janvier 1866) est un homme de lettres britannique surtout connu pour ses talents satiriques. L'amitié entre Peacock et Percy Bysshe Shelley ne fut pas sans influence sur leurs uvres respectives. Celle de Peacock comporte des poèmes et des comédies, mais il reste surtout connu pour ses romans satiriques, construits selon une formule immuable : ses personnages, assis autour d'une table, discutent à bâtons rompus en offrant au narrateur la possibilité de se moquer des opinions philosophiques du jour. Extrait: Anthélia Mélincourt se trouvait, à lâge de vingt-un ans, maîtresse delle-même, de dix mille livres sterling de rente et dun antique château situé dans la vallée la plus sauvage du Westmoreland. Il est naturel de penser, quindépendamment de ses qualités personnelles, ces trois titres lui donnaient un très-grand nombre dadmirateurs : daimables militaires et beaucoup de jeunes ecclésiastiques prétendaient à la belle héritière. Anthélia était assez riche dattraits pour inspirer une passion désintéressée ; il est donc également permis de supposer que dans la foule de ses prétendans, il pouvait sen trouver, au moins un, pour qui les revenus et le vieux château étaient des objets secondaires. Si quelques lecteurs trouvent cette supposition trop hardie pour le siècle où nous vivons, siècle où tout est soumis au calcul, il peut au moins la regarder comme une de ces licences poétiques permises à cenx qui écrivent lhistoire ou de très-véridiques romans. Le château de Mélincourt avait été une place forte, aux siècles de la féodalité ; à cette époque, où personne nétait en sûreté dans sa maison, à moins quil ne prît toutes les précautions possibles, pour en défendre lentrée à ses voisins. Un roc escarpé, coupé perpendiculairement sur trois de ses côtés, accessible sur la quatrième face, seulement par un étroit sentier, aboutissant à un pont jeté sur un effrayant abîme, fut considéré comme une situation précieuse pour asseoir un château fort. Un torrent impétueux se précipitait dans les profondeurs de labîme ; après avoir blanchi contre les bases du château quil semblait vouloir anéantir, il allait se perdre sous une épaisse forêt, dont les retraites mystérieuses furent autrefois consacrées, par la superstition, aux démons et qui étaient maintenant parcourues sans frayeur, par le pécheur solitaire, où retracées, à la vue, par la main hardie du peintre, dont le pinceau magique transportait leurs sauvages beautés, au sein de la métropole de la vieille Angleterre, à la fois si malsaine et si animée. Létroit sentier qui formait laccès du château, avait été défendu par tous les moyens que le génie des fortifications, avait pu opposer à lÉcossais affamé qui, engagé par le voisinage, était quelquefois monté, sans invitation, au château, et avait payé lhospitalité quil y avait reçu, par le vol, le meurtre et lincendie. Un pont-levis, jeté sur le précipice, était défendu par une double herse ; cétait le seul passage ouvert pour pénétrer dans cette retraite également défendue par lart et la nature, et toujours approvisionnée pour soutenir un siége. Cétait-là que vivaient les lords de Mélincourt, avec tout le faste quaffichaient jadis les puissans propriétaires, invitant, les jours de paix accidentelle, leurs vassaux à des festins, où le buf rôti était servi en entier, et où coulait, à grands flots, la bière forte.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077PPB7NY/?tag=2022091-20
(Thomas Love Peacock is literatures perfect individualist...)
Thomas Love Peacock is literatures perfect individualist. He has points in common with Aristophanes, Plato, Rabelais, Voltaire, and even Aldous Huxley, but resembles none of them; we can talk of the satirical novel of ideas, but his satire is too cheery and good-natured, his novel too rambling, and his ideas too jovially destructive for the label to stick. A romantic in his youth and a friend of Shelley, he happily made hay of the romantic movement in Nightmare Abbey, clamping Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley himself in a kind of painless pillory. And in Crotchet Castle he did no less for the political economists, pitting his gifts of exaggeration and ridicule against scientific progress and March of Mind. Yet the romantic in him never died: the long, witty, and indecisive talk of his characters is set in wild, natural scenery which Peacock describes with true feeling.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140430458/?tag=2022091-20
merchant novelist satirist comic
Peacock was born on October 18, 1785 in Weymouth, Dorset, the son of Samuel Peacock and his wife Sarah Love, daughter of Thomas Love, a retired master of a man-of-war in the Royal Navy.
Thomas Love Peacock, the son of a London merchant, was educated for a business career and not for a life of artistic pursuits.
Finding work in an office uncongenial, he was able to leave his job and to live for a while on his inherited income. During these years he began to write poetry, and he became a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley. After the poet's death, Peacock became his literary executor and edited a volume of memorials. Peacock married Jane Gryffydh, a lady mentioned in glowing terms in Shelley's poem "Letter to Maria Gisborne. "
In this period Peacock also began to write the satirical novels on which his reputation rests. The first group includes Headlong Hall (1815), Melincourt (1817), and Nightmare Abbey (1818). His pattern in these works was to dispense with all but the most mechanical plotting and to devote his attention to extended conversations between the inhabitants and guests at characteristic English country houses.
Headlong Hall includes Mr. Foster, an optimist; Mr. Escot, a pessimist; Mr. Jenkinson, an advocate of the status quo; and Dr. Gaster, a minister more distinguished by his worldliness than by his piety.
Melincourt has a more integrated plot, centering on the wooing of a wealthy heiress. Its main interest lies, however, in its satirical portraits of William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Thomas Malthus, and Lord Monboddo. Nightmare Abbey continues the satire of poets and philosophers of the day, including Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Shelley.
In 1819 Peacock joined the East India Company and became a competent and successful executive of colonial affairs. He continued his imaginative writing. In addition to poetry, he published two romance-novels dealing with fairy-tale plots and characters. Maid Marian (1822) is set in medieval England and concerns the legendary exploits of Robin Hood's band.
The Misfortunes of Elphin (1829) is a parody of the Arthurian legend in which King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Welsh bard Taliesin figure. After these forays into the romance-novel, Peacock returned to his true métier with another satirical novel, Crotchet Castle (1831).
Peacock died at Lower Halliford, 23 January 1866, from injuries sustained in a fire in which he had attempted to save his library, and is buried in the new cemetery at Shepperton.
He was one of the most incisive commentators on the cultural life of England in the first half of the 19th century. Leading intellectual figures of the day satirized in this work include Coleridge, the rigorous school of Scottish economic thinkers, and those who joined in the period's growing tendency to glorify the Middle Ages. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of Peacock's career was, however, his production of another novel of the same type almost 30 years afterward.
Gryll Grange (1860) shows the marks of age in its tendency to ramble from scholarly to domestic subjects and in its avoidance of personal satire of leading intellectual figures. Gryll Grange was Peacock's last novel.
(Excerpt from Rhododaphne, or the Thessalian Spell: A Poem...)
( This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, ...)
(This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, Chr...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(Thomas Love Peacock (18 octobre 1785 - 23 janvier 1866) e...)
(NIGHTMARE ABBEY AND OTHER NOVELS includes five works by n...)
(Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock is his fourth long wor...)
(Literally dozens of Robin Hood books have been written ov...)
(Crotchet Castle Gryll Grange Headlong Hall Maid Marian Ni...)
(Thomas Love Peacock is literatures perfect individualist...)
(1994 Folio Society hardcover. Thomas Love Peacock (Maid M...)
(HEADLONG HALL. NIGHTMARE ABBEY. MAID MARIAN. CROTCHET CAS...)
Quotes from others about the person
Sir Edward Strachey wrote of him: 'A kind-hearted, genial, friendly man, who loved to share his enjoyment of life with all around him, and self-indulgent without being selfish. "
His granddaughter remembered him in these words: "In society my grandfather was ever a welcome guest, his genial manner, hearty appreciation of wit and humour in others, and the amusing way in which he told stories made him a very delightful acquaintance; he was always so agreeable and so very witty that he was called by his most intimate friends the "Laughing Philosopher", and it seems to me that the term "Epicurean Philosopher", which I have often heard applied to him, describes him accurately and briefly. In public business my grandfather was upright and honourable; but as he advanced in years his detestation of anything disagreeable made him simply avoid whatever fretted him, laughing off all sorts of ordinary calls upon his leisure time. "
Peacock married Jane Gryffydh, a lady mentioned in glowing terms in Shelley's poem "Letter to Maria Gisborne. " Peacock had four children, a son Edward who was a champion rower, and three daughters. One of them, Mary Ellen, married the novelist George Meredith as her second husband in August 1849. Only his son survived him, and he for less than a year, but he left several grandchildren.
