Headlong Hall

by Thomas Love Peacock

Overview

Thomas Love Peacock (1785‒1866) is one of the most distinctive prose satirists of the Romantic period. The Cambridge Edition of the Novels of Thomas Love Peacock offers the first complete text of these works to appear for more than half a century. Headlong Hall (1816), Peacock's earliest work of dialogic and satirical fiction, was the most popular of his tales during his lifetime and considered his signature novel. An episodic plot and a country house setting provide the framework for a sparkling intellectual comedy that embraces music, gastronomy, philosophy, politics, craniology, painting, and landscape gardening. This edition supplies an authoritative text and a comprehensive introduction tracing the genesis, composition, publication, reception, and revision of the novel. Extensive explanatory notes throw light on the Welsh backdrop to the fiction as well as on the literary, political, social, and intellectual contexts of Peacock's innovative topical satire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789362765253
Publisher:	Double 9 Books
Publication date:	04/01/2024
Pages:	86
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.21(d)

About the Author

English playwright and poet Thomas Love Peacock (1785 1866) was well-known for his sarcastic books and humorous writing. He was raised in Weymouth, Dorset, England, and worked for the East India Company for the most of his adult life. Poems were the foundation of Peacock's creative career, and he was a part of the Romantic movement. He was more well known, however, for his books, which displayed his quick wit, social commentary, and intellectual debate. The political, intellectual, and cultural currents of his day were often lampooned in his writings. "Headlong Hall" (1816), "Nightmare Abbey" (1818), "Maid Marian" (1822), and "Crotchet Castle" (1831) are a few of Peacock's well-known books. These books offered a criticism of many intellectual and social beliefs while blending aspects of romance, adventure, and satire. Peacock's work was distinguished by his witty wordplay, generous use of dialogue, and lighthearted depiction of oddball individuals. He used his extensive understanding of physics, philosophy, and ancient literature into his writings. Although Peacock's works were not well known when he was alive, they became well-known and had a significant impact in the 20th century. His books are still valued for their humor, social critique, and distinctive literary style.

Table of Contents

General Editor's preface; Chronology; Introduction; Headlong Hall; Appendix A. Peacock's Preface of 1837; Appendix B. The Dilettanti (1812–13); Appendix C. The Three Doctors (1812–13); Appendix D. A Revised Text of the Headlong 'Chorus'; Note on the text; Emendations and variants; Ambiguous line-end hyphenations; Explanatory notes; Select bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

‘With their meticulous notes, rigorous documentation of textual variants and generous contextual appendices (including two unperformed, unpublished farces that Peacock drew on for Headlong Hall), these fine new volumes in the Cambridge Edition of the Novels of Thomas Love Peacock get us closer than ever to the nuances of his satire.’ Thomas Keymer, the Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

As for having characters lecture on life, what a vice it is! And always unsatisfactory, even in the hands of Dr. Mann. Peacock and the early Huxley did it best...

THE NEW YORKER