Thomas Love Peacock was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. "Headlong Hall" like most of Peacock's novels, assembles a group of characters who discuss topics that were then of interest to Peacock and his circle of intellectual friends. Peacock uses the work to parody contemporary thinking in a variety of disparate areas, including utilitarianism, vegetarianism, aesthetics, music, poetry, art criticism, and so on.