The dinner in question is held by Benjamin Haydon, the painter, in his London studio. Among the guests were Keats, Wordsworth and Charles Lamb. The dinner is used as a focal point for the author to explore a wide range of aspects of the social and literary life at the time. It succeeds in giving a genuine insight into life in literary and artistic London in the years immediately following the Napoleonic wars. It ranges through the new age of scientific discovery by the likes of Davey and Faraday, doomed journeys of exploration in Africa, the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade, the treatment of the insane (I.e. Charles Lamb's sister, Mary), the gory details of the surgical techniques at the time, the supplying of bodies by grave robbers to anatomy classes and the lives and work of the guests at the dinner.
Haydon himself is probably the most interesting character, being the least well-known; his life a series of ups and downs due to his money troubles and disputatious nature. As a lifelong Londoner, what I found equally interesting we're some of the day to day details of London life at the time, including the journeys each of them made to get to the dinner ( )