Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 - 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work. Peacock wrote satirical novels, each with the same basic setting: characters at a table discussing and criticising the philosophical opinions of the day Melincourt is the second novel of Thomas Love Peacock, published in 1817. It is based on the "idea of an orang-outang mimicking humanity" (see James Burnett, Lord Monboddo). An orangutan called Sir Oran Haut-Ton is put forward as a candidate for election as a Member of Parliamen