This volume contains a collection of interesting essays by Thomas Love Peacock and other writers, including Virginia Woolf. The essays include: "The Satirists and Fantastics", "The Four Ages of Poetry", "Recollections of Childhood", "The Last Day of Windsor Forest", and "Prospectus: Classical Education". The essays chiefly deal with the subject of literature and its history, and are highly recommended for students and lovers of the English language in general. Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 - 23 January 1866) was an English poet, novelist, and important figure in the East India Company. A good friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, they both had a significant influence on each other's work. Peacock was most famous for writing satirical novels, which usually involved characters sat around a table discussing contemporary philosophical ideas. Other notable works by this author include: "Headlong Hall" (1815), "Gryll Grange" (1861), and "Melincourt" (1817). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with intoductory essays by Sir Walter Raleigh and Virginia Woolf.