Crotchet Castle

First published in 1831, this satirical novel gathers a set of cranks at the Thames-side house of the wealthy Mr Crotchet. Guests include a Scot who believes in paper money, a medievalist squire, a doctor of catastrophe, and the Reverend Dr Folliott, who prefers dinner to theory. Conversation about political economy, the march of mind, and the condition of England is interrupted by a romance between Crotchet's daughter and the poor scholar Mr Chainmail, and by a comic rural disturbance. Peacock's book is a novel of talk: ideas staged as house-party argument rather than a plotted adventure.

Quarter bound in brown buckram, Cockerell marbled paper boards. Pale yellow endleaves. Pale brown slipcase.