-Nightmare Abbey

A satire criticizing the dark, pessimistic, and morbid literary culture of early 19th century Britain, the Gothic Nightmare Abbey features large towers, a moat, gardens filled with ivy and weeds, and is set on the English fens. The novel is primarily a philosophical discussion among several dinner guests, who are meant to represent popular writers like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a friend of Peacock’s. To reinforce the satire, the characters have farcical names like “Diggory Deathshead,” “Mr Toobad,” and “Scythrop,” which is based on the Greek for “of sullen countenance.”