Wuthering Expectations: ADAMS Robert M

Wuthering Expectations: ADAMS Robert M
Excerpt:
Peacock, I should point out, loved Romantic poetry and was a Romantic poet himself. Mockery can be an expression of love.

Why, I wonder, is Nightmare Abbey not on Anna’s list? It is a short little thing, just ninety pages. Shelley, Byron, and Coleridge are actually characters in the novel, not even thinly disguised. It features Shelley communing with owls and drinking Madeira from a human skull. My doubt about much of Peacock’s work is that its virtues might be too obscure for a reader not immersed in Peacock’s time. For the reader who is immersed, the reader who has prowled around that British Romanticism reading list, Peacock is a relief, and a reward....