P-Wave Classics – serie

Two sparkling social satires on progress, tradition, and the absurdities of intellectual fashion.A master of comic wit and biting satire, Thomas Love Peacock turns his sharp eye to the ideological battles of 19th-century Britain in Crotchet Castle and Gryll Grange, his final two novels. Blending humour, erudition, and playful irreverence, these brilliant comedies explore the follies of intellectual fashion, the tension between modernity and tradition, and the eternal question of what makes a life truly worth living.In Crotchet Castle (1831), an eccentric country house becomes the stage for an animated clash of ideas, as economists, reformers, medievalists, and scientists debate the future of society. With a cast of unforgettable characters—including pompous political theorists, utopian dreamers, and champions of outdated aristocratic values—Peacock offers a hilarious yet insightful critique of grandiose ideologies and social dogma.In Gryll Grange (1860), Peacock’s final novel, the satire is softened with a charming reflection on love, leisure, and the simple pleasures of life. The cultured and independent-minded Mr. Falconer, weary of modernity’s relentless pace, chooses a life of quiet retreat—until romance and a new generation of reformers challenge his convictions. With its elegant prose, sparkling dialogues, and a subtle undercurrent of nostalgia, Gryll Grange is Peacock’s most philosophical and reflective work.Perfect for fans of Jane Austen’s comedy of manners, Oscar Wilde’s razor-sharp wit, and the intellectual playfulness of Laurence Sterne, Crotchet Castle & Gryll Grange showcases Peacock at his most incisive, entertaining, and relevant.This P-Wave Classics edition brings these two novels together in a single volume, making them available to a new generation of readers who delight in satire, conversation, and the pleasures of the mind.Edited with notes and an introduction by L.A. Davenport.

A spirited heroine. A dangerous flirtation. A society unwilling to forgive.Published anonymously in 1797, The Coquette quickly became one of the most widely read novels of early America. Inspired by the real-life story of Elizabeth Whitman—an intelligent and accomplished young woman whose tragic death became a national scandal—Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel explores the pressures placed on women in a world that offers them few real choices.Eliza Wharton is recently released from an unwanted engagement and eager to enjoy her freedom. But her charm and independence attract unwanted scrutiny, especially when she becomes the object of attention from both a respectable clergyman and a dangerously attractive libertine. As the letters fly and public judgement closes in, Eliza’s story becomes a subtle but powerful meditation on reputation, agency and the human cost of social conformity.This P-Wave Classics edition includes:The full text of Foster’s original 1797 novelThe 1855 Historical Preface by Jane E. LockeCaroline Wells Healey Dall’s 1875 response, The Romance of the AssociationTogether, they offer a rare glimpse into the literary afterlife of The Coquette and the fierce cultural debate surrounding the woman who inspired it.Edited with notes and an introduction by L.A. Davenport.

A radical outsider, a fearless heroine and a society laid bareVolume I of a three-volume editionFirst published in 1796, Robert Bage’s Hermsprong; or, Man as He is Not is a daring novel of social satire and progressive thought. Hermsprong, an American-raised gentleman untouched by Britain’s rigid class system, confronts the corruption, pretension and hypocrisy of the English elite.At the centre of the story is Maria Fluart, one of the most striking heroines of the age. Witty, outspoken and unafraid to challenge the men around her—even brandishing a pistol when pressed—she embodies a spirited independence rarely seen in fiction of the period.Bage himself was admired by Sir Walter Scott, yet Hermsprong has long been overlooked. Satirical and humane, it offers a fearless defence of equality, sincerity and freedom of thought.This new three-volume P-Wave Classics edition features an original introduction and extensive notes, situating Bage’s remarkable novel in the ferment of the late Enlightenment and the early Romantic age.Edited with notes and an introduction by L.A. Davenport.This volume contains the Biographical Introduction, Editorial Note and the opening volume of the novel.