Career
Peacock's own place in literature is pre-eminently that of a satirist. That he has nevertheless been the favourite only of the few is owing partly to the highly intellectual quality of his work, but mainly to his lack of ordinary qualifications of the novelist, all pretension to which he entirely disclaims. He has no plot, little human interest, and no consistent delineation of character. His personages are mere puppets, or, at best, incarnations of abstract qualities such as grace or beauty, but beautifully depicted.
Peacock also contributed to "The Juvenile Library", a magazine for youth
His comedy combines the mock-Gothic with the Aristophanic. He suffers from that dramatist's faults and, though not as daring in invention or as free in the use of sexual humour, shares many of his strengths. His greatest intellectual love is for Ancient Greece, including late and minor works such as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus; many of his characters are given punning names taken from Greek to indicate their personality or philosophy.
Novels
Headlong Hall (published 1815 but dated 1816) [lightly revised, 1837]
Melincourt (1817)
Nightmare Abbey (1818) [lightly revised, 1837]
Maid Marian (1822)
The Misfortunes of Elphin (1829)
Crotchet Castle (1831) [lightly revised, 1837]
Gryll Grange (1861) [serialised first in 1860]
Verse
The Monks of St. Mark (1804)
Palmyra and other Poems (1805)
The Genius of the Thames: a Lyrical Poem (1810)
The Genius of the Thames Palmyra and other Poems (1812)
The Philosophy of Melancholy (1812)
Sir Hornbook, or Childe Launcelot's Expedition (1813)
Sir Proteus: a Satirical Ballad (1814)
The Round Table, or King Arthur's Feast (1817)
Rhododaphne: or the Thessalian Spirit (1818)
Paper Money Lyrics (1837)
The War-Song of Dinas Vawr
Essays
The Four Ages of Poetry (1820)
Recollections of Childhood: The Abbey House (1837)
Memoirs of Shelley (1858–62)
The Last Day of Windsor Forest (1887) [composed 1862]
Prospectus: Classical Education
Plays
The Three Doctors
The Dilettanti
Gl'Ingannati, or The Deceived (translated from the Italian, 1862)
Unfinished tales and novels
Satyrane (c. 1816)
Calidore (c. 1816)
The Pilgrim of Provence (c. 1826)
The Lord of the Hills (c. 1835)
Julia Procula (c. 1850)
A Story Opening at Chertsey (c. 1850)
A Story of a Mansion among the Chiltern Hills (c. 1859)
Boozabowt Abbey (c. 1859)
Cotswald Chace (c. 1860)