''Headlong Hall'' is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

Thomas Love Peacock Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, ...

, his first long work of fiction, written in 1815 and published in 1816. As in his later novel ''

Crotchet Castle ''Crotchet Castle'' is the sixth novel by Thomas Love Peacock, first published in 1831. As in his earlier novel '' Headlong Hall'', Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humour and socia ...

'', Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humor and social satire from their various interactions and conversations. The setting is the country estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq., in Wales.

Plot

Four visitors arrive at Headlong Hall: "Mr. Foster, the perfectibilian; Mr. Escot, the deteriorationist; Mr. Jenkins, the statu-quoite; and the Reverend Doctor Gaster, who though of course neither a philosopher nor a man of taste, had so won the Squire's fancy by a learned dissertation on the art of stuffing a turkey, that he concluded no Christmas party would be complete without him." At the Hall, they find further guests, including phrenologist Mr. Cranium, philosopher Mr. Panscope, amateur musician Mr. Chromatic, and Miss Philomela Poppyseed, a popular novelist. Squire Headlong leads the throng through a series of dinners and Christmas celebrations, although the chief focus of the story is the running thread of conversation between the various exponents of their respective views. By the final morning of the party, four couples have become engaged, and Reverend Gaster performs a wedding ceremony for them. The guests disperse, promising to meet again in summer.

Neologisms

As part of Mr. Cranium the phrenologist's announcement of his lecture, the author coins the words ' and '. They refer to the structure of the human body; they are adjectives compounded by stringing together classical terms that describe the body, using ancient Greek terms for the first word and Latin for the second.

References

External links

Text of ''Headlong Hall'', at the T. L. Peacock Society
* 1816 British novels Novels by Thomas Love Peacock Novels set in Wales British novellas British comedy novels {{1810s-novel-stub