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Nightmare Abbey is a novella by Thomas Love Peacock, first published in 1818, widely considered to be Peacock's most enduringly popular work. The narrative centres on Christopher Glowry, a miserly widower, his son Scythrop and a host of dismal-sounding servants in his family pile, Nightmare Abbey. Recovering from an ill-fated love affair, Scythrop dreams up various schemes to reform and regenerate the human species, but misanthropy lurks around every corner, and everything changes when a mermaid is spotted and a strange woman appears in his chamber.
Although fundamentally a Gothic novel, and rich in allusion - from Pope to Dante, Rossini to Mozart - Nightmare Abbey is, at heart, a satire, as Peacock makes clear in the preface to a later edition, in which he describes the characters - allusions to his friends - as 'status-quo-ites', 'morbid visionaries', 'romantic enthusiasts' and 'lovers of good dinners'.
About the author
Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was a poet and author. He was a prolific writer, mainly of satirical works, and many critics believe that he and Percy Bysshe Shelley influenced one another's works, since they were close friends. Peacock's father died in reduced circumstances, so the young Thomas was largely self-educated, and spent much time in the Reading Room at the British Library studying the best classical texts he could find. Whilst much of his poetry and essays were very well-thought of, Peacock is best known today for his novels Nightmare Abbey and Melincourt.
Summary
Nightmare Abbey is widely considered to be Peacock's most enduringly popular work. The narrative centres on Christopher Glowry, a miserly widower, his son Scythrop and a host of dismal-sounding servants in his family pile, Nightmare Abbey, where misanthropy lurks around every corner.
