Nightmare Abbey

Satire Comic classics Gothic and ghostly

A household devoted to gloom provides the setting for a comedy of disappointed love and extravagant ideas.

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Mark F. Smith. Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 15 chapters
Reading time: About 1 hr 49 min
Words: 26,021

About the book

Christopher Glowry presides over a partly ruined house and cultivates company suited to his melancholy. His son Scythrop responds to disappointment in love by retreating into solitary thought and romantic reading. At Nightmare Abbey, unhappiness can become almost a social accomplishment.

Peacock's comedy enjoys the gap between elevated language and ordinary human needs. The characters' declarations make their philosophies audible, while the domestic setting keeps testing their grandeur. Readers can enjoy the satire without identifying particular models: the temptation to turn a mood into a complete explanation of life is recognisable enough.

On these lists

Satire Comic classics Gothic and ghostly

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Thomas Love Peacock died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original epigraph.

Nightmare Abbey

Contents