Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London : H. FrowdePublication date: 1909Subjects: Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London H. FrowdePublication date: 1909Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first book to offer a literary analysis of Peacock's novels, including the two ironic medieval romances "Maid Marian and" "The Misfortunes of Elphin. Other works included are" "Headlong Hall, Melincourt, Nightmare Abbey, Crotchet Castle, The Romances and" "Gryll Grange." ... Read more

Product Description
Nightmare Abbey is a topical satire in which the author pokes light-hearted fun at the romantic movement in contemporary English literature, in particular its obsession with morbid subjects, misanthropy and transcendental philosophical systems. Most of the characters in the novel are based on historical figures whom Peacock wishes to pillory.
Similarly, Crotchet Castlesatirizes romanticism, political theories, and society through witty dialogue.
Peacock was a close friend of Percy Shelley and they influenced each other's work. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume presents the first (1815) and last (1860) of Peacock's distinctive satirical novels. No other edition of either is currently available in paperback. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A perfect pleasure
Peacock deserves a far wider readership.The modesty of a man whose books could have been dressed up as classics but were left as the iridescent sports they are is awesome.Wholly satisfying, these anticipate Joyce's and look back to Sterne's comprehensive neutrality.Gryll Grange: greatest novel of the nineteenth century?Certainly the subtlest intellectually. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; History / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A satire for those who don't like satires
Headlong Hall, an almost 200-year-old satire by Thomas Love Peacock, is the name of the ancestral home of the Headlongs, Welsh gentry of ample means and some intellectual ambition. Squire Headlong has invited a slice of the English beau monde for a country house party. The guests typify popular and competing philosophies of the day: the man who thinks life is a constant process of improvement, his hell-in-a-handbasket opposite, mister status-quo, a minister committed to religious conviction but not action; and a variety of others.


The action is a slapstick device for gently but firmly skewering the fashionable intellectual pretensions of the day, most of which are equally at home in the 21st Century. The landscape architect, a novelty in 1815, can easily be replaced with any zealous enthusiast of today. The only real surprise I found was the comparative youth of the characters; but in a time before antibiotics seriousness came early in life.


The writing is typical of the time and will seem stilted to the modern reader; but if you are comfortable with Jane Austen, you will have no trouble with Mr. Peacock, although I did need a dictionary at hand. As with most satires, it is a pleasantly short confection, only about 80 pages; and the footnotes are a joke unto themselves.

Early 19th-century satire at its most erudite and witty
I daresay that no less a personage than Destiny herself foresaw to introduce me to the works of Thomas Love Peacock.While perusing the stacks of English Literature holdings at my library, I literally bumped into this book with my elbow, saw that it was misshelved, and also noticed the fact that Ray Bradbury had seen fit to write an introduction to it.How could I not examine this little book, given such circumstances?It proved to be a most fortuitous meeting, as I quite enjoyed my short adventure at Headlong Hall.

Peacock, it seems, was a venerable man of letters, a man of great wit and fancy who catered not to the popular imagination but principally produced works of prose and poetry for those of a scholarly, even antiquarian, mind.Headlong Hall, first published anonymously in 1816, is the first of Peacock's several novels; the book exists not so much to tell a story as to engage in discourses upon a myriad of subjects with something of a satirical air.Seeing as how Peacock wrote during the first half of the nineteenth century, some of his satirical passages relate to politics and social thinking I am wholly unfamiliar with in this day and age, but there remains plenty to delight those who love a good display of sagacity.Peacock could not only pontificate about all manner of subjects, he could land jibes from both directions upon the lot of them.There is a taste of Plato in his delineations of philosophical debates, yet the entire pageantry of pedantry found in Headlong Hall is always tempered by the affability of the host (Squire Headlong) and the liberal distribution of spirits among all parties.Don't expect to fall in love with any of the book's characters or engage your emotions to any significant degree (despite Peacock's insertion of a modicum of romance) with the story, for this is a book of ideas as represented by somewhat satirical characters.

What you have in Headlong Hall is a gathering of intellectuals by Squire Headlong, who has developed a desire to be seen as a man of taste.He seems to enjoy nothing better than a spirited debate among the learned - he doesn't really care what anyone has to say, though.Everyone gets to talk, and it doesn't really matter that no one actually listens because the parties involved consist predominantly of the types of men who enjoy hearing themselves talk in the first place.By way of example, you have Mr. Foster, a "perfectabilian" who extols the wonders of progress in the world, and Mr. Escot, a "deteriorationist" who lauds the goodness of the "natural" man, impugns progress at every turn, and basically consigns all of mankind to the compost heap of history.In between these two, there is Mr. Jenkinson, a "statu-quo-ite" who finds balance in everything.There are other parties joining in the fun, including a scattering of writers and critics, but those aforementioned afford one a good sense of the story's nature.

It's amazing to see a writer argue opposite sides of any given debate so effectively.Peacock has no trouble tolerating a fool, although he tends to poke a little fun while doing so.Peacock himself was seemingly no fan of popular ideas or the boastings of high-minded intellectuals, but it is hard to identify what he himself believes from the pages of this novel.I should also mention the prose itself, for it can be rough going at times.Peacock was a most educated man, and he uses more than his share of "big words" that mean nothing to me (who among you can readily define such words as philotheoparoptesism or osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary and use them in a sentence?).He also liberally sprinkles Latin and Greek quotations in the text, most of which (at least in the edition of the book I read) are not translated for the modern reader.Overall, though, Headlong Hall is a most extraordinary short novel that will appeal primarily to those with a scholarly bent and an appreciation for subtle humor and satire. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London D. NuttPublication date: 1910Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPTER IIITHE OPPRESSION OF GWENHIDWYNid meddw y dyn a allo Cwnu ei hun a rhodio, Ac yved rhagor ddiawd : Nid yw hyny yn veddwdawd. Not drunk is he, who from the floor Can rise alone, and still drink more ; But drunk is he, who prostrate lies, Without the power to drink or rise. A SIDE door, at the upper end of the hall, to the left of Seithenyn's chair, opened, and a beautiful young girl entered the hall, with her domestic bard, and her attendant maidens.It was Angharad, the daughter of Seithenyn. The tumult had drawn her from the solitude of her chamber, apprehensive that some evil might befall her father in that incapability of self-protection to which he made a point of bringing himself by set of sun. She gracefully saluted Prince Elphin, and directed the cupbearers (who were bound, by their office, to remain half sober till the rest of the company were finished off, after which they indemnified themselves at leisure), she directed the cupbearers to lift up Prince Seithenyn, and bear him from the hall. The cupbearers reeled off with their lord, who had already fallen asleep, and who now began to play them a pleasant march with his nose, to inspirit their progression.Elphin gazed with delight on the beautiful apparition, whose gentle and serious loveliness contrasted so strikingly with the broken trophies and fallen heroes of revelry that lay scattered at her feet' Stranger,' she said, ' this seems an unfitting place for you : let me conduct you where you will be more agreeably lodged.'' Still less should I deem it fitting for you, fair maiden,' said Elphin.She answered, ' The pleasure of her father is the duty of Angharad.'Elphin was desirous to protract the conversation, and this very desire took from him the power of speaking to the p... ... Read more

Product Description
This eight-volume collection reprints rare, essential nineteenth-century Robin Hood texts--and in doing so re-establishes for scholars and readers a largely lost element of the remarkably rich and ever-popular myth.

In particular, the nineteenth century provided some classical fictional reformulations of the outlaw saga, in which the hero and his activities were re-interpreted in ways relating to the concerns and values of the period. Robin appears, for instance, as a Gothic adventurer, a romantic hero, a lost heir, a precursor of Baden-Powell, and even as a loyal servant of parliamentary democracy in its alleged origin. The substantial novels that embody these conceptions of the outlaw are little known, and quite unavailable until now.

Available as an eight-volume set or as individual volumes. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
"Money," said the stranger, "is to me mere chaff." And producing a bag from his pocket, and shaking it by one corner, he scattered on the floor a profusion of gold. The Vicar, who had seen nothing but paper money for twenty years, was astonished at these yellow apparitions, and picking up one inspected it with great curiosity. On one side was the phenomenon of a crowned head with a handsome and intelligent face, and the legend ARTHURUS REX. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPv IILTHE ROMAN CAMP.He loved her more then seven yere, Yet was he of her love never the nere ; He was not ryche of golde and fe, A gentyll man forsoth was he. The N'/ .'/'' '.'/' l'wrThe Reverend Doctor Folliott having promised to return to dinner, walked back to his vicarage, meditating whether he should pass the morning in writing his next sermonr or in angling for trout, and had nearly decided in favor of the latter proposition, repeating to himself, with great unction, the lines of Chaucer :And as for me, though that I can but lite,On bokis for to read I me delite,And to 'hem yeve I faithe and full credence, And in mine herte have 'hem in reverence, So hertily, that there is game none, That fro my bokis makith me to gone, But it be seldome, on the holie daie; Save certainly whan that the month of Maie Is comin, and I here the foulis sing, And that the flouris ginnin for to spring, Farwell my boke and my devotion: when his attention was attracted by a young gentleman who was sitting on a camp stool with a portfolio on his knee, taking a sketch of the Roman Camp, which, as has been already said, was within the enclosed domain of Mr. Crotchet. The young stranger, who had climbed over the fence, espying the portly divine, rose up, and hoped that he was not trespassing. " By no means, sir," said the divine, " all the arts and sciences are welcome here; music, painting, and poetry; hydrostatics, and political economy; meteorology,transcendentalism, and fish for breakfast."THE STRANGER.A pleasant association, sir, and a liberal and discriminating hospitality. This is an old British camp, I believe, sir.THE REV. DR. FOLLIOTT.Roman, sir; Roman: undeniably Roman. The vallum is past controversy. It was not a camp, sir, a castrum, but a cast... ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: Boston, for the members of the Bibliophile Society; Publication date: 1910; Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry; ... Read more