Thomas Love Peacock (1785 - 1866), English author who satirized the intellectual tendencies of his day in novels in which conversation predominates over character or plot.Nightmare Abbey, like Frankenstein, appeared in 1818. Strangely, it was also inspired by Shelley, who was friends with Peacock. Nightmare Abbey makes a nice counterpoint, and speaks of the importance of a new audience.Nightmare Abbey is a Gothic 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.Thomas Love Peacock combined an intimate knowledge of Romantic ideas with a satirical attitude toward them, though in comic debates rather than conventional narratives.
