Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle

James Mulvihill (University of Alberta)
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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…

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 19 March 2024.]

9866 Crotchet Castle 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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