Peacock: His Circle and His Age

Thomas Love Peacock, 1785–1866, is known as the author of half a dozen brief satiric 'novels' which caricature men and movements of the early nineteenth century. Dr Mills' critical study treats Peacock as a man who was particularly alive to the important literary development and the general movements of thought in his time. The main contention in this book is that in the Regency period Peacock suddenly became more than the conventional minor writer he had been. There is also a detailed critique of Peacock's novels, and a study of his neglected music criticism. The whole book amounts to an in depth treatment of the literary and intellectual life of the Regency period considered as a time when old tastes and ideas were giving way to new. Peacock's mixture of scepticism and intelligent sympathy gives him an important place as reporter and critic.