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Thomas Love Peacock
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Headlong Hall Kindle Edition

by Thomas Love Peacock (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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  1. Print length
    89 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    May 17, 2012
  5. File size
    278 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0084B6S4O
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 17, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 278 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 89 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 150018148X
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Thomas Love Peacock

Thomas Love Peacock

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Algernon Blackburn
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018
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Peaoock was a genius
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Christopher (o.d.c.)
4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten classics revisited.. not as funny as I remember.
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2015
Verified Purchase
In my memory this book was more sparkling and funny (and less pedantic) than it seemed to me re-reading it after twenty years.

I also cannot remember if I thought it was a forgotten classic, or 'caviary to the general'. Notice that 'written in 1815' makes it exactly contemporary with Jane Austen's great novels, as might also be deduced from such a passage as this:

Mr Escot seated himself by the side of Mr Jenkison, and inquired if he took no part in the amusement of the night?
Mr Jenkison. No. The universal cheerfulness of the company induces me to rise; the trouble of such violent exercise induces me to sit still. Did I see a young lady in want of a partner, gallantry would incite me to offer myself as her devoted knight for half an hour: but, as I perceive there are enough without me, that motive is null. I have been weighing these points pro and con , and remain in statu quo.

Now, whether 88 pp. is too short or too long depends on whether you find stuff like the following humorous...

Mr Panscope. (Suddenly emerging from a deep reverie.) I have heard, with the most profound attention, every thing which the gentleman on the other side of the table has thought proper to advance on the subject of human deterioration; and I must take the liberty to remark, that it augurs a very considerable degree of presumption in any individual, to set himself up against the authority of so many great men, as may be marshalled in metaphysical phalanx under the opposite banners of the controversy; such as Aristotle, Plato, the scholiast on Aristophanes, St Chrysostom, St Jerome, St Athanasius, Orpheus, Pindar, Simonides, Gronovius, Hemsterhusius, Longinus, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Paine, Doctor Paley, the King of Prussia, the King of Poland, Cicero, Monsieur Gautier, Hippocrates, Machiavelli, Milton, Colley Cibber, Bojardo, Gregory Nazianzenus, Locke, D'Alembert, Boccaccio, Daniel Defoe, Erasmus, Doctor Smollett, Zimmermann, Solomon, Confucius, Zoroaster, and Thomas-a-Kempis.

John Lennon said it best... "I don't believe in Zimmermann." But that list is funny. Here is another:

It was an old custom in Headlong Hall to have breakfast ready at eight, and continue it till two; that the various guests might rise at their own hour, breakfast when they came down, and employ the morning as they thought proper; the squire only expecting that they should punctually assemble at dinner. During the whole of this period, the little butler stood sentinel at a side-table near the fire, copiously furnished with all the apparatus of tea, coffee, chocolate, milk, cream, eggs, rolls, toast, muffins, bread, butter, potted beef, cold fowl and partridge, ham, tongue, and anchovy.

Proof, if proof were needed, that the little novel is something of a pipe-dream.
4 people found this helpful
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Billy
3.0 out of 5 stars good, bad
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2014
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A didactic thought-provoking humorous talkathon. Covers all the basic human topics ( e.g. life, death, good, bad, evil, God, etc).
Definitely requires a good liberal arts education to appreciate. An intellectual exercise; not for all
One person found this helpful
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eclecticist
4.0 out of 5 stars A satire for those who don't like satires
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2009
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Headlong Hall, an almost 200-year-old satire by Thomas Love Peacock, is the name of the ancestral home of the Headlongs, Welsh gentry of ample means and some intellectual ambition. Squire Headlong has invited a slice of the English beau monde for a country house party. The guests typify popular and competing philosophies of the day: the man who thinks life is a constant process of improvement, his hell-in-a-handbasket opposite, mister status-quo, a minister committed to religious conviction but not action; and a variety of others.

The action is a slapstick device for gently but firmly skewering the fashionable intellectual pretensions of the day, most of which are equally at home in the 21st Century. The landscape architect, a novelty in 1815, can easily be replaced with any zealous enthusiast of today. The only real surprise I found was the comparative youth of the characters; but in a time before antibiotics seriousness came early in life.

The writing is typical of the time and will seem stilted to the modern reader; but if you are comfortable with Jane Austen, you will have no trouble with Mr. Peacock, although I did need a dictionary at hand. As with most satires, it is a pleasantly short confection, only about 80 pages; and the footnotes are a joke unto themselves.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Wizard
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2016
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Nicely produced book, delivered on time. And, of course, it is a classic of its kind.
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Demoulins Stephane
5.0 out of 5 stars sympa
Reviewed in France on March 26, 2011
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Beaucoup d'humour.

Livre court (66 pp.)et facile à lire.[Mon édition : The Echo Library.]

4 personnages principaux : The perfectibilian ; the deteriorationist ; the statu-quo-ite ; and the Reverend. (Les noms per se --en soi-- donnent le ton du livre.)
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