Thomas Love Peacock eBooks
eBooks di Thomas Love Peacock editi da Memorable Classics Ebooks
Nightmare Abbey. E-book. Formato EPUB Thomas Love Peacock - Memorable Classics Ebooks, 2022 -
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock Nightmare Abbey is an 1818 novella by Thomas Love Peacock which makes good-natured fun of contemporary literary trends.Insofar as the novel may be said to have a plot, it follows the fortunes of Christopher Glowry, a morose widower who lives with his only son Scythrop in the isolated family mansion, Nightmare Abbey, in Lincolnshire. Mr Glowry's melancholy leads him to choose servants with long faces or dismal names such as Mattocks, Graves and Skellet.The few visitors he welcomes to his home are mostly of a similar cast of mind, with the sole exception of his brother-in-law, Mr Hilary. The visitors engage in conversations, or occasionally monologues, which serve to highlight their eccentricities or obsessions.Mr Glowry's son Scythrop is recovering from a love affair which ended badly. A failed author, he often retires to his own quarters in a tower to study. When he leaves them, he is distracted by the flirtatious Marionetta, who blows hot and cold on his affections.A further complication arises when Celinda Toobad, fleeing from a forced engagement to an unknown suitor, appeals to Scythrop for shelter and he hides her in a secret room. The change in Scythrop's demeanour spurs on Marionetta to threaten to leave him forever, and he is forced to admit to himself that he is in love with both women and cannot choose between them.There is a brief interruption to the usual round of life at the Abbey when the misanthropic poet, Mr Cypress, pays a farewell visit before going into exile. After his departure, there are reports of a ghost stalking the building, and the appearance of a ghastly figure in the library throws the guests into consternation. Only later is the apparition revealed to have been Mr Glowry's somnambulant steward Crow.
Headlong Hall. E-book. Formato EPUB Thomas Love Peacock - Memorable Classics Ebooks, 2022 -
Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock Headlong Hall is a novella by Thomas Love Peacock, his first long work of fiction, written in 1815 and published in 1816.As in his later novel Crotchet Castle, Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humor and social satire from their various interactions and conversations. The setting is the country estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq., in Wales.Four visitors arrive at Headlong Hall: "Mr. Foster, the perfectibilian; Mr. Escot, the deteriorationist; Mr. Jenkins, the statu-quoite; and the Reverend Doctor Gaster, who though of course neither a philosopher nor a man of taste, had so won the Squire's fancy by a learned dissertation on the art of stuffing a turkey, that he concluded no Christmas party would be complete without him." At the Hall, they find further guests, including phrenologist Mr. Cranium, philosopher Mr. Panscope, amateur musician Mr. Chromatic, and Miss Philomela Poppyseed, a popular novelist. Squire Headlong leads the throng through a series of dinners and Christmas celebrations, although the chief focus of the story is the running thread of conversation between the various exponents of their respective views. By the final morning of the party, four couples have become engaged, and Reverend Gaster performs a wedding ceremony for them. The guests disperse, promising to meet again in summer.