Thomas Love Peacock is probably best known today for his hilarious Nightmare Abbey, which cheerfully satirizes the interest of contemporary literature in morbid subjects and gothic settings. Some of the targets of his broadly affectionate satire were significant literary figures in the early nineteenth century.

Largely self-taught, but intellectually distinguished, he became a successful and important employee of the East India Company, working in London for thirty years. After his retirement, he enjoyed a quiet life with his books and his garden near the Thames, but he died in 1866 from injuries sustained while trying to save his library from a fire.

Most of his seven novels were written between 1815 and 1830; they are sometimes called ‘conversation novels’. They are not intricately plotted and the characters are not extensively developed, yet they present the discussions and arguments of a diverse set of people in an appealing and often very funny way.