Nightmare Abbey - Softcover

Peacock, Thomas Love

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1511698950 ISBN 13: 9781511698955

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Despite its ominously sounding title, 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 novel 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. Mr Glowry is a melancholy gentleman who likes to surround himself with servants with long faces or dismal names such as Raven, Graves or Deathshead. Scythrop is recovering from a love affair, which ended badly when Mr Glowry and the young woman's father quarrelled over terms and broke off the proposed match. To distract himself Scythrop takes up the study of German romantic literature and transcendental metaphysics. Scythrop throws himself into a quixotic mission of reforming the world and regenerating the human species, and dreams up various schemes to achieve these ends. Most of these involve secret societies of Illuminati. He writes a suitably impenetrable treatise on the subject, which only sells seven copies. But Scythrop is not despondent. Seven is a mystical number and he determines to seek out his readers and make of them seven golden candlesticks with which to illuminate the world. He has a hidden chamber constructed in his gloomy tower as a secret retreat from the enemies of mankind, who will no doubt seek to thwart his attempts at social regeneration. Meanwhile, however, he is constantly distracted from these projects by his dalliance with two women – the worldly and flirtatious Marionetta and the mysterious and intellectual Stella – and by the constant stream of visitors to the abbey. Things become interesting when Mr and Mrs Hilary arrive with their niece, the beautiful Marionetta Celestina O'Carroll.Nightmare Abbey is generally considered to be the most lastingly successful of Peacock's novels. Together with four other Peacock novels – Headlong Hall, Melincourt, Crotchet Castle and Gryll Grange – it comprises a matching set of satirical works that are quite exceptional in English literature. As a satirist Peacock owed something to Rabelais, Swift and to Voltaire and various French writers of the 18th century; but as a novelist he seems to owe little if anything to his predecessors.

About this title

Review:

"Though considered a light--even a slight--novel, Nightmare Abbey requires of its ideal reader extensive knowledge of the age that produced it: the literature, the politics, and, not least, the personalities associated with English Romanticism. Lisa Vargo succeeds admirably in bringing this rich background--masterfully synthesized in a critical introduction and amply documented in notes and appendices--to bear on the work for which its author is best known and which, as much as any other work of the period, engages English Romantic culture in all its numerous contradictory forms. Vargo has brought together the resources of recent Peacock scholarship and an invaluable archive of excerpted contemporary texts to produce an edition of Peacock's most characteristic--and arguably his best--novel for a new generation of readers."--James Mulvihill

"Published in the same year as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey is not just a burlesque of the Gothic novel, but a sustained critique of what he regarded as 'the darkness and misanthropy of modern literature.' His witty satire on 'the spirit of the age' can best be understood through an awareness of its complex intertextual relations with other works of Romantic literature. To help promote such awareness, Lisa Vargo's new Broadview edition provides a thoughtful introduction, detailed explanatory notes, and an exceptionally rich array of contextual material drawn from contemporary reviews of the novel, translations of earlier German literature, relevant works by Godwin, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Hazlitt, and, perhaps equally important, Peacock's own critical and autobiographical writings."--Nicholas A. Joukovsky

“Though considered a light—even a slight—novel, Nightmare Abbey requires of its ideal reader extensive knowledge of the age that produced it: the literature, the politics, and, not least, the personalities associated with English Romanticism. Lisa Vargo succeeds admirably in bringing this rich background—masterfully synthesized in a critical introduction and amply documented in notes and appendices—to bear on the work for which its author is best known and which, as much as any other work of the period, engages English Romantic culture in all its numerous contradictory forms. Vargo has brought together the resources of recent Peacock scholarship and an invaluable archive of excerpted contemporary texts to produce an edition of Peacock’s most characteristic—and arguably his best—novel for a new generation of readers.” — James Mulvihill, University of Alberta

“Published in the same year as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey is not just a burlesque of the Gothic novel, but a sustained critique of what he regarded as ‘the darkness and misanthropy of modern literature.’ His witty satire on ‘the spirit of the age’ can best be understood through an awareness of its complex intertextual relations with other works of Romantic literature. To help promote such awareness, Lisa Vargo’s new Broadview edition provides a thoughtful introduction, detailed explanatory notes, and an exceptionally rich array of contextual material drawn from contemporary reviews of the novel, translations of earlier German literature, relevant works by Godwin, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Hazlitt, and, perhaps equally important, Peacock’s own critical and autobiographical writings.” — Nicholas A. Joukovsky, Pennsylvania State University

"Though considered a light--even a slight--novel, Nightmare Abbey requires of its ideal reader extensive knowledge of the age that produced it: the literature, the politics, and, not least, the personalities associated with English Romanticism. Lisa Vargo succeeds admirably in bringing this rich background--masterfully synthesized in a critical introduction and amply documented in notes and appendices--to bear on the work for which its author is best known and which, as much as any other work of the period, engages English Romantic culture in all its numerous contradictory forms. Vargo has brought together the resources of recent Peacock scholarship and an invaluable archive of excerpted contemporary texts to produce an edition of Peacock's most characteristic--and arguably his best--novel for a new generation of readers." -- James Mulvihill, University of Alberta

"Published in the same year as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey is not just a burlesque of the Gothic novel, but a sustained critique of what he regarded as 'the darkness and misanthropy of modern literature.' His witty satire on 'the spirit of the age' can best be understood through an awareness of its complex intertextual relations with other works of Romantic literature. To help promote such awareness, Lisa Vargo's new Broadview edition provides a thoughtful introduction, detailed explanatory notes, and an exceptionally rich array of contextual material drawn from contemporary reviews of the novel, translations of earlier German literature, relevant works by Godwin, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Hazlitt, and, perhaps equally important, Peacock's own critical and autobiographical writings." -- Nicholas A. Joukovsky, Pennsylvania State University

"Though considered a light--even a slight--novel, Nightmare Abbey requires of its ideal reader extensive knowledge of the age that produced it: the literature, the politics, and, not least, the personalities associated with English Romanticism. Lisa Vargo succeeds admirably in bringing this rich background--masterfully synthesized in a critical introduction and amply documented in notes and appendices--to bear on the work for which its author is best known and which, as much as any other work of the period, engages English Romantic culture in all its numerous contradictory forms. Vargo has brought together the resources of recent Peacock scholarship and an invaluable archive of excerpted contemporary texts to produce an edition of Peacock's most characteristic--and arguably his best--novel for a new generation of readers." -- James Mulvihill, University of Alberta

"Published in the same year as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey is not just a burlesque of the Gothic novel, but a sustained critique of what he regarded as 'the darkness and misanthropy of modern literature.' His witty satire on 'the spirit of the age' can best be understood through an awareness of its complex intertextual relations with other works of Romantic literature. To help promote such awareness, Lisa Vargo's new Broadview edition provides a thoughtful introduction, detailed explanatory notes, and an exceptionally rich array of contextual material drawn from contemporary reviews of the novel, translations of earlier German literature, relevant works by Godwin, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Hazlitt, and, perhaps equally important, Peacock's own critical and autobiographical writings." -- Nicholas A. Joukovsky, Pennsylvania State University

Book Description:

Thomas Love Peacock's third novel, Nightmare Abbey (1818), is a Gothic satire that offers a serious yet witty critique of Romanticism. This first fully comprehensive scholarly edition, including a thorough introduction, annotations and other essential textual apparatus, will be indispensable for scholars of Peacock and Romanticism more generally.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1511698950
• ISBN 13: 9781511698955
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 100