Thomas Love Peacock 
Nightmare Abbey (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

Published in 1818, this nimble satire of gothic novels and Romanticism focuses on Christopher Glowry and his son, Scythrop, who dwell in their ancestral home of Nightmare Abbey.  There, a succession of moody, melancholy philosophers and poets—based on historical personages—engage their hosts in debate, while young Scythrop pursues romance with various unobtainable women.

Circa l’autore

Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was an English novelist and poet, an intimate of Shelley and other Romantic poets.  His best-known novel, Nightmare Abbey (1818), was a satire of gothic novels and the Romantic movement.  His death had a certain tragic irony:  he succumbed to injuries sustained while attempting to rescue his books from a fire.