Nightmare Abbey; Crotchet Castle

by Thomas Love Peacock

published 1818/1831

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Gothic, British Literature, Classic Literature, 19th Century, Novels

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1830

About the author

Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was an English novelist and poet. For most of his life, Peacock worked for the East India Co. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, who greatly inspired his writing. His best verse is interspersed in his novels, which are dominated by the conversations of their characters and satirize the intellectual currents of the day. His best-known work, Nightmare Abbey (1818), satirizes romantic melancholy and includes characters based on Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.

Reviews

[Rosemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consists of two novels.
Nightmare Abbey is a witty spoof of the Romantic Movement and, despite the name, is not a gothic novel. It was one Peacock's first novels.
Crotchet Castle was written years later and is a satire of political economists. At one point the author states that each character felt there was only one way to manage things--his way.
I enjoyed this book more than the first because the plot was more interesting, including a sweet love story, and the characters were more developed.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review title: Victorian literature was not all Dickens

"With an introduction by J. B. Priestley".

These two short novels from 19th century England date from just before the bulk of Dickens' output, from a writer who was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Both novels might be termed drawing-room comedies, with comical characters (caricatures, actually, with names like Mr. Toobad, who sees evil extant in every thing in the world, Mr. Firedamp, an amateur meteorologist, and Lord Bossnowl, an idle gentleman and member of Parliament from the rotten borough of Rogueingrain) who do much talking, some eating and drinking (with much talking about that) and little of anything else.

So, with that setting of the table, and the witty dialogue flowing freely around it, you have an idea what to expect. Some of the allusions are universal and humorous, others so topical that only geographic and temporal contemporaries of the writer could fully appreciate the meaning--and serve as a bracing reminder of the timeless universality of Dickens. The novels seem to be about, as one character says , "people that talk nonsense logically."

And nonsense it literally is at times. The modern reader will find unfamiliar vocabulary on nearly every page, so it is worthwhile to read with ready access to a search engine, and even then there was more than one word I could find no definition for. Peacock even footnotes that some of his words were nonsense; I certainly wasn't sure what to make of this sentence:

"An unusual collocation of words, involving a juxtaposition of antiperistatical ideas, immediately suggest the notion of hyperoxysophistical paradoxology."

Note also that of the dozens of references and quotations, many are in the original French, Greek, or Latin, and usually are not translated. The well-educated Victorian reader was expected to know more of the classical than we do today by far.

Yet the novels are short and the mood light and well worth the wading around the (comically) swampy parts, to find humor, wisdom, and even good sense spoken logically, like this explanation of the difference between planned travel as a tourist, and taking in a new place by chance:

It is one thing to follow the high road through a country, with every principally remarkable object carefully noted down in a book, taking, as therein directed, a guide, at particular points, to the more recondite sights: it is another to sit down on one chosen spot, especially when the choice is unpremeditated, and from thence, by a series of explorations, to come day by day on unanticipated scenes. The latter process has many advantages over the former; it is free from the disappointment which attends excited expectation, when imagination has outstripped reality, and from the accidents that mar the scheme of the tourist's single day, when the valleys may be drenched with rain, or the mountains shrouded with mist.

Over the last few years, as I have worked around the world I have found great delight in the unpremeditated exploration of places I might never have found as a tourist, and am profoundly grateful for the opportunity, and to Mr. Peacock for the warm and gentle reminder of it.

[russell barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh - so this is what Romantic literature is all about! If only Dr Robert Peter Manwaring and myself had read this during our ill-fated dalliance with Byron at University, it would've been much less ill-fated. And much, much funnier.

It's got everything: mad stereotypes, owl-infested castles, secret chambers, completely made-up ridiculous words and huge dollops sarcasm, with even more sarcastic footnotes. Even better is the fact (from the notes I hasten to add - there's a reason I scraped a 2:2) Peacock was a close friend of Shelley and knew the other Romantics, making his piss-taking even more spot-on.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nightmare Abbey" (1818) is superbly funny, as the gentlemen, each with his own crazy ideas, argue it out. "Crotchet Castle" (1831) is similar, but with something of a plot attached to it, and it also features two women, whose ideas are almost as odd. Both are relatively short. Good holiday reading, I'd say.

[Giselle Sellier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eurodite, witty, and hugely enjoyable.

[Nicole Witen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these two stories (one book) because I needed to fulfill a prompt of a story older than 100 years, and I was pleasantly surprised. Both stories represent the time periods they were written in (1910s and 1930s.) I definitely received glimpses of Rabelais, Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde at times when reading these stores (even though Wilde wasn't even born when these were written.)

Nightmare Abbey had me guffawing - I had no idea there was a satire out there on the romantics. If you know well writers and poets of the Romantic period from France, Germany and England ( and you did not enjoy studying them like me,) Nightmare Abbey is for you. This was a profoundly enjoyable story with some great references.

I did not enjoy Crotchet Castle as much. I have read some of the Scottish political economy writers, but I do not know their texts as well as the romantics authors referenced in Nightmare Abbey. The satire was definitely still on point in Crotchet Castle nonetheless, and the read was still enjoyable. I did not like the ancient greek references, which I do not know so I found having to refer to the endnotes a bit tedious, and broke the flow of the reading. I wasn't always certain how the greek text fit into the rest of the text. I also found the philosophical meandering in Crotchet Castle less interesting. There was more gratuitous poetry in Crotchet Castle, which felt superfluous at times. The plot also seemed lost to the 'debate' being had by the side characters. Still, Crotchet Castle was interesting but not as good as Nightmare Abbey.

Definitely worth a read if you like satire and know a lot about early 19th century writings and poetry in Western Europe.

[Joshua Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whilst Nightmare Abbey may be the more famous of this duo, I feel Crotchet Castle is an underrated gem of the late romantic era of writing. The satire in this novel abounds - discussions over industrialisation and ruination of the countryside cause heated arguments and discussions framed in the context of polite British society - particularly the brilliantly memorable character of Reverend Doctor Folliott. The characters are eccentric, fun, and you never know which way the dinner parties are going to go! The author also rivals Dickens in his creation of clever names, with one character (a Mr Chainmail) believing that everything has simply gone downhill socially since the days of knights and chivalry in the Medieval era. For a laugh at the expense of our predecessors, Crotchet Castle is well worth a read.

[Chelsea Wipf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick read that was accomplished in 2 evenings, and it wasn't until midway through the 2nd evening, that I decided I actually was enjoying this story. humorous characters, full of dour melancholy, and named like people from Pilgrims Progress( i.e. Mr Listless, Mr Toobad, Mr Glowry). If you are looking for a book, written in an early 1900s style, full of witty academics, that bemoan all of life, this book is for you. And while thats not usually what I go for when I read a book, I'm glad I did this one.

[Ktbird · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I wanted this book to be scary, but it was funny. The characters and their conversation is quite smart. I'm sure this would be more meaningful to read with someone who studied the era and could explain even more of the humor. Authors seemed to have more fun with words and names centuries ago.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found its general dullness and the rambling nature of the disjointed chapters to outweigh the concepts and intricacies of the intended satire. Particularly with Nightmare Abbey, I felt a sense of dissatisfaction upon completion.
I'm sure it will be some people's cup of tea, but sadly not mine.

[Edward Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two satirical novellas provide a rewarding glimpse into the intellectual life and social preoccupations of England's lesser gentry in the early 19th century. The pick of the litter is certainly Nightmare Abbey, a sort of Georgian Addams Family, a comprehensive parody of overripe Romanticism and the Gothic worldview. Crotchet Castle drags on a bit and treads some of the same ground again.

[Chas Bayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This what Spitting Image would have been like before TV. My how those 19th century wags would have chuckled at this - I on the other hand had to struggle through the copious annotations to get through A Level. Even so, I really liked it, a real antidote to all the Jane Austen I was being force fed at the time.

[Michellelester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really wanted to like this book after reading Daisy Hay's 'The Young Romantics' but just couldn't find a way in. Couldn't find the humour, appreciate the satire...perhaps reading late at night not best approach to this one, but found it one big yawn!

[Mikael · Rating 2 out of 5]

i only bought this because i saw a pretty redhead chick carrying it around the university courtyard trying to find a secluded place to read it. secluded from my roving eyes!

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading after, probably, thirty years.

OK, re-read Nightmare Abbey only. Guess I'm not gonna read the other one again now.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

fab fun!

[Tinquerbelle]

1) Nightmare Abbey
2) Crotchet Castle