- Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock - A classic miniature: a brilliant satire on the Romantic novel

- 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

- The plot of Nightmare Abbey revolves arourd the hero Scythrop Glowry's unwillingness to make up his mind which of two young women he is in love with.

- His character is modeled on Peacock's friend the Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who also happened to find himself involved with two women.
- The plot, however, is only a convenience for Peacock to present a series of dialogues on a variety of themes currrent during the early part of the 19th century.
- Various characters present the point of view of some of the more famous people of the period.
- Among the topics they discuss are: novelty in literature, reason versus mysticism, transcendentalism, and ideal beauty.
- Often the dialogues are presented as they would be in a play."

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- Thomas Love Peacock was an 18th century English author and satirist.
- Peacock's work was influenced by his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley.
- Peacock's novels used the same basic setting that of a group of people at a table discussing and criticizing philosophical opinions.
- Nightmare Abbey was written in 1818.
- This satire pokes fun at the Romantic Movement in English literature.
- The characters in the novel are based on historic figures.
- Peacock sees the British as being obsessed with transcendental philosophical systems and morbid subjects of any kind.
- Many of the allusions in the book are specific to the period in which it was written, yet there is enough relevance to make this a delight to read