Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle

James Mulvihill (University of Alberta)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University), Emily Rohrbach (University of Durham)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1831

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Satire

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Crotchet Castle

(1831) is Thomas Love Peacock's penultimate novel. Separated from the earlier “novels of talk” by a dozen years or so, this work represents something of a shift for Peacock, depicting as it does a world in which (to quote Marilyn Butler) “liberalism has become orthodoxy” (Butler 183). If Peacock wore his reform sympathies on his sleeve in

Melincourt

, this tendency is not so evident in

Crotchet Castle

. The

Westminster Review

thus sadly observed in its review of the novel that “men are most inclined to satirize that of which they know the most”, a pointed reference to Peacock's circle of utilitarian acquaintances at India House where he now worked. The reviewer urged the author to concentrate on “the greater nuisances which prey upon the well-being of…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2754 words

Citation: Mulvihill, James. "Crotchet Castle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9866, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback