Nightmare Abbey (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By Thomas Love Peacock

Published in 1818, this nimble satire of gothic novels and Romanticism focuses on Christopher Glowry and his son, Scythrop, who dwell in their ancestral home of Nightmare Abbey.  There, a succession of moody, melancholy philosophers and poets—based on historical personages—engage their hosts in debate, while young Scythrop pursues romance with various unobtainable women.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Apr 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411446977

Reviews for Nightmare Abbey (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

[wirkman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been nearly thirty years since I've read this. All I can remember of it is that I thought it quite good. Very funny. One of those few comedies of the 19th century to carry over in mirth to the present day.

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Young Scythrop Glowry lives with his father in a desolate castle, his bitter mother having died suddenly, to his father's joy. Scythrop recently graduated from a university, where his head was filled with nothing but he picked up the habit of drinking too much. Both Scythrop and his father enjoy the miserable things in life, but Scythrop is young and quickly falls in love with Emily, who quickly marries another, leaving Scythorpe in a romantic depression. When his father's many miserable friends come to visit, there also arrives beautiful and cruel Marionetta, and The Honourable Mr. Listless, who lies on the sofa reading, as doing any more is too taxing.Published in 1818, this is a satire of the Gothic romance novels that were popular at the time. The characters are thinly veiled caricatures of Lord Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth.

[philsyphe · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm reviewing this four years to the day that I finished reading it. Lasting impressions? I can barely remember it, though words like "boredom" and "dull" come to mind. I know the story didn't come close to the promising title.It would doubtless be a nightmare to read it twice.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this spoof on the Kantian/Transcendentalist books of the late 1700s & early 1800s.

[jacoombs_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very funny if somewhat outdated. To be read as a spoof of romantic writing and, perhaps, philosophical debates but - as much satire - wanting on character, plot development.

[amanda4242_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read [Nightmare Abbey] because it came up as a recommendation for people who liked [[Jane Austen]]'s [Northanger Abbey], a novel I read and loved earlier this year. While the two novels do have similarities, I found [Nightmare Abbey] to be much more like [Candide] in its skewering of the Romantic movement.This one will probably be best appreciated by people who are pretty familiar with the Romantics, as Peacock makes many references to a number of Romantic works and based most of his characters on some of the leading names of the movement, including [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[Mary Shelley]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], and [[Lord Byron]]. Although knowing all of the allusions aren't necessary for enjoying the book, which has some great passages, the Wikipedia page can help with some of the more esoteric passages.While [Nightmare Abbey] wasn't the book I was expecting it to be, I did enjoy the book that it is. It will never be one of my all-time favorites, but its wit, and short length, will probably have me rereading it in the future.