Headlong Hall

First edition title page

Headlong Hall is the first novel by Thomas Love Peacock, published in 1815 (dated 1816).^[1]

As in his later novel Crotchet Castle, Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humor and social satire from their various interactions and conversations. The setting is the country estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq. in Wales.

As part of Mr. Cranium the phrenologist's announcement of his lecture, the author coins words like osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous, tethippharmatelesipedioploctipophillary and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary. They refer to the structure of the human body, and are essentially compound adjectives obtained by stringing together Classical terms that describe the body (ancient Greek in the case of the first two words, Latin in the third word).

References

1. ^ "Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866)". Encyclopedia Britannica. 21. 1911. pp. 22. 

External links

Text of Headlong Hall, at the T. L. Peacock Society