Thomas Love Peacock 
Headlong Hall 

According to Wikipedia: ‘Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English satirist and author. Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other’s work. He wrote satirical novels, each with the same basic setting — characters at a table discussing and criticising the philosophical opinions of the day. He worked for the British East India Company.’