First published without a byline in London Magazine, Confessions came along when English journalism was especially hungry for copy.
Boosted by improvements in printing technology, the periodical trade was booming, with essayists such as Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt enjoying a steady pipeline for their work.
It was a publishing sensation in its time, going through more than two-dozen editions by the end of the century.
Nearly two centuries after publication, De Quincey's masterwork remains in print.
Remarking on the placement of a small screen to divide different classes of passengers from each other, he invites us to consider how we can render unpleasantness invisible simply by choosing not to look at it.
He also plays with our notions of hierarchy by arguing that a coach's outside seats, which are cheaper, are actually better than the socially coveted ones inside the carriage.
n the vivid and varied world of 19th-century British literature, Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) endures as a striking footnote.
He produced 250 essays published in 21 volumes, along with dabbling in fiction, yet is known today—to the extent he's known at all—for one book, an 1822 memoir of addiction entitled Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.
In beautifully rendered compositions such as "New Year's Eve" and "A Bachelor's Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People," the bittersweet loneliness of Lamb and his quietly heroic resilience come through.
But what often seems missing from De Quincey, despite his promise of candor, is a sense of true intimacy with his audience.
Comments De Quincey Essays
On Murder - Thomas De Quincey - Oxford University Press
The titular essay in this volume of work by Thomas De Quincey centers on the notorious career of the murderer John Williams, who in 1811 brutally killed seven.…
Thomas De Quincey and the Making of a Murderer The New.
Nov 2, 2016. More than a hundred years before Hitchcock began making films, Thomas De Quincey first pegged this affect in an 1823 essay, “On the.…
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" by Thomas De.
Dec 18, 2014. “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” by Thomas De Quincey Essay. “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” is an autobiographical.…
De Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859 - The Online Books Page
De Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859 Biographical and historical essays / by Thomas De Quincey. Boston Houghton, Mifflin, c1877 page images at HathiTrust.…
The Conflicting Poetics of Antiquity in De Quincey's.
Theory of Greek Tragedy”, an essay published in Blackwood's in 1840, testifies to De Quincey's very original, personal and idiosyncratic interpretation of.…
Eating Opium and Writing Intoxicating Prose - WSJ
Oct 28, 2016. The startling vivacity of De Quincey's essays owes as much to the fact that he was writing for a popular press as it does to his perceptive eye.…
Re-Collecting De Quincey” – A Review-essay of. - Érudit
Re-Collecting De Quincey” – A Review-essay of The Works of Thomas De Quincey. Gen. ed. Grevel Lindop. 21 Volumes. London Pickering and Chatto.…
The Modern Sensibility of the 19th-Century Essayist
Jan 12, 2017. He produced 250 essays published in 21 volumes, along with dabbling in. Nearly two centuries after publication, De Quincey's masterwork.…