Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey

James Mulvihill (University of Alberta)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1818

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Gothic & Ghosts
Novel
Parody

Resources

Peacock’s third novel, Nightmare Abbey, represents a return to the pattern of Headlong Hall (1815). His previous novel, Melincourt (1817), also bears the name of a country house but is less focused on a particular place, its peripatetic action unfolding over a virtual Regency landscape. Moreover, Melincourt is the most politically engaged of Peacock’s novels, its reform-minded hero and heroine clearly speaking for Peacock himself. Peacock’s friend, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley — on whom Melincourt’s hero, Sylvan Forester, is said to be based — thought so highly of Melincourt …

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2502 words

Citation: Mulvihill, James. "Nightmare Abbey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 June 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16900, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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