Peacock, Thomas Love (1785-1866)

English satirical novelist and poet. His unique whimsical novels are full of paradox, prejudice, curious learning, and witty dialogue, interspersed with occasional poems, and he satirizes contemporary ideas, outlooks, and attitudes in a prevailing comic tone. They include Headlong Hall (1816), Melincourt (1817), and Nightmare Abbey (1818), which has very little plot, consisting almost entirely of conversation expressing points of view on contemporary controversies and society.

He published two romances, Maid Marian (1822) and Misfortunes of Elphin (1829), but returned to the form of Headlong Hall with his last and best novels, Crotchet Castle (1831) and Gryll Grange (1860). These mature works are written with greater assurance and are less concerned with purely contemporary affairs.

Peacock was born in Weymouth, Dorset. Largely self-educated, he became a scholar of Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and in 1801 began to write poetry. In 1812 he became friendly with Shelley, who had a great influence on him. Peacock later published memoirs of the poet in Fraser's Magazine. He worked for the East India Company from 1819 and was chief examiner from 1837-56. He was also instrumental in the development of the earliest gunboats during the 1830s.