Thomas De Quincey Popular Books
Thomas De Quincey Biography & Facts
Thomas Penson De Quincey (; né Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 1785 – 8 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West. Life and work Child and student Thomas Penson Quincey was born at 86 Cross Street, Manchester, Lancashire. His father was a successful merchant with an interest in literature. Soon after Thomas's birth, the family moved to The Farm and then later to Greenheys, a larger country house in Chorlton-on-Medlock near Manchester. In 1796, three years after the death of his father, Thomas Quincey, his mother – the erstwhile Elizabeth Penson – took the name De Quincey. That same year, his mother moved to Bath and enrolled him at King Edward's School. He was a weak and sickly child. His youth was spent in solitude, and when his elder brother, William, came home, he wrought havoc in the quiet surroundings. De Quincey's mother was a woman of strong character and intelligence but seems to have inspired more awe than affection in her children. She brought them up strictly, taking De Quincey out of school after three years because she was afraid he would become big-headed, and sending him to an inferior school at Wingfield, Wiltshire. Around this time, in 1799, De Quincey first read Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Coleridge. In 1800, De Quincey, aged 15, was ready for the University of Oxford; his scholarship was far in advance of his years. "That boy could harangue an Athenian mob better than you or I could address an English one," his master at Bath said. He was sent to Manchester Grammar School, in order that after three years' stay he might obtain a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, but he took flight after 19 months. His first plan had been to reach Wordsworth, whose Lyrical Ballads (1798) had consoled him in fits of depression and had awakened in him a deep reverence for the poet. But for that De Quincey was too timid, so he made his way to Chester, where his mother dwelt, in the hope of seeing a sister; he was caught by the older members of the family, but through the efforts of his uncle, Colonel Penson, he received the promise of a guinea (equivalent to £85 in 2021) a week to carry out his later project of a solitary tramp through Wales. While on his journey around Wales and Snowdon, he avoided sleeping in inns to save what little money he had and instead lodged with cottagers or slept in a tent he had made himself. He sustained himself by eating blackberries and rose hips, only rarely getting enough proper food from the goodwill of strangers. From July to November 1802, De Quincey lived as a wayfarer. He soon lost his guinea by ceasing to keep his family informed of his whereabouts and had difficulty sustaining himself. Still, apparently fearing pursuit, he borrowed some money and travelled to London, where he tried to borrow more. Having failed, he lived close to starvation rather than return to his family. Discovered by chance by his friends, De Quincey was brought home and finally allowed to go to Worcester College, Oxford, on a reduced income. Here, we are told, "he came to be looked upon as a strange being who associated with no one." In 1804, while at Oxford, he began the occasional use of opium. He completed his studies, but failed to take the oral examination leading to a degree, and he left the university without graduating. He became an acquaintance of Coleridge and Wordsworth, having already sought out Charles Lamb in London. His acquaintance with Wordsworth led to his settling in 1809 at Grasmere in the Lake District. He lived for ten years in Dove Cottage, which Wordsworth had occupied and which is now a popular tourist attraction, and for another five years at Foxghyll Country House, Ambleside. De Quincey was married in 1816, and soon after, having no money left, he took up literary work in earnest. His wife, Margaret, bore him eight children before her death in 1837. One of his sons, Paul Frederick de Quincey (1828–1894), emigrated to New Zealand. Journalist In July 1818, de Quincey became editor of the Westmorland Gazette, a Tory newspaper published in Kendal, after its first editor had been dismissed, but he was unreliable at meeting deadlines, and in June 1819 the proprietors complained about "their dissatisfaction with the lack of 'regular communication between the Editor and the Printer'", and he resigned in November 1819. His political sympathies tended towards the right. He was "a champion of aristocratic privilege" and "reserved Jacobin as his highest term of opprobrium." Moreover, he held reactionary views on the Peterloo massacre and the Sepoy rebellion, on Catholic Emancipation, and on the enfranchisement of the common people. De Quincey was also a proponent of British imperialism, believing it to be inherently just regardless of its cost. Despite his ideological commitment to personal identity and freedom that derived from his addiction to and struggles with opium, and in spite of his opposition to the notion of slavery, De Quincey aligned himself against the abolitionist movement in Britain. In his articles for The Edinburgh Post, on the issue in 1827 and 1828, he accused anti-slavery campaigners of running "schemes of personal aggrandizement", and worried that abolition would undermine the basis of the British Empire and cause uprisings like the Haitian Revolution against colonial rule. Instead he proposed that there should be gradual reformation led by the slave-owners themselves. Translator and essayist In 1821, he went to London to dispose of some translations from German authors, but was persuaded first to write and publish an account of his opium experiences, which that year appeared in the London Magazine. His account prove to be a new sensation that eclipsed interest in Lamb's Essays of Elia, which were then appearing in the same periodical. The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater were soon published in book form. De Quincey then made a number of new literary acquaintances. Thomas Hood found the shrinking author "at home in a German ocean of literature, in a storm, flooding all the floor, the tables and the chairs—billows of books …" De Quincey was famous for his conversation; Richard Woodhouse wrote of the "depth and reality, as I may so call it, of his knowledge … His conversation appeared like the elaboration of a mine of results …" From this time on, De Quincey maintained himself by contributing to various magazines. He soon exchanged London and the Lakes for Edinburgh, the nearby village of Polton, and Glasgow, and he spent the remainder of his life in Scotland. In the 1830s, he was listed as living at 1 Forres Street, a large townhouse on the edge of the Moray Estate in Edinburgh. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and its rival Tait's Magazine received numerous contribution.... Discover the Thomas De Quincey popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Thomas De Quincey books.
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition.
Thomas De QuinceyThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 16
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the final part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition. Volume I.
Thomas De QuinceyThe NOVELS OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period w...
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Ruler of the Night
David MorrellThe notorious OpiumEater returns in the sensational climax to David Morrell's acclaimed Victorian mystery trilogy. 1855. The railway has irrevocably altered English society, effect...
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Works of Thomas De Quincey
Thomas De Quincey18 works of Thomas De Quincey English essayist (17851859) This ebook presents a collection of 18 works of Thomas De Quincey. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly...
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The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume I
Thomas De QuinceyThe Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume I Thomas De Quincey, english essayist (17851859) This ebook presents «The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume I», ...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 6
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the first part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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Thomas de Quincey
Arvède BarineBiographie de Thomas de Quincey. Arvède Barine, historienne, critique littéraire et biographe entre autres de E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Poe et Gérard de Nerval, relate ici le parcours...
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Works of Thomas De Quincey
Thomas De Quincey3 works of Thomas De Quincey English essayist (17851859) This ebook presents a collection of 3 works of Thomas De Quincey. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly t...
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The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume II
Thomas De QuinceyThe Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume II Thomas De Quincey, english essayist (17851859) This ebook presents «The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey Volume II»...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition, vol. XI
Thomas De QuinceyThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1
Thomas De QuinceyThese articles recovered from the MSS. of De Quincey will, the Editor believes, be found of substantive value. In some cases they throw fresh light on his opinions and ways of thin...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 21
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the final part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume II
Thomas De QuinceyThe Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume II Thomas De Quincey, english essayist (17851859) This ebook presents «The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume II», from T...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume I
Thomas De QuinceyThe Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume I Thomas De Quincey, english essayist (17851859) This ebook presents «The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey Volume I», from Tho...
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The Collected Works of Thomas De Quincey
Thomas De QuinceyThis comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works the Œuvre of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook 9935 pages easytoread and easytonavi...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition. Volume VI.
Thomas De QuinceyThe NOVELS OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period w...
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The Opium-Eater
David MorrellFrom bestselling thriller author David Morrell comes a brooding Thomas De Quincey short story about the coldest of deaths and their heartbreaking aftermath. Thomas De Quincey the...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 3
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the first part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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Thomas De Quincey
V.A. De LucaThomas De Quincey: The Prose of Vision is the first fulllength critical study of De Quincey's imaginative writings. Considering these writings as a 'prose of vision' transcending t...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2
Thomas De QuinceyAll that needs to be said in the way of introduction to this volume will best take the form of notes on the articles which it contains. 'Conversation and S. T. Coleridge'. , Mr. Fi...
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I Am the Brother of XX
Fleur Jaeggy & Gini AlhadeffAs concentrated as bullets, new stories by the inimitable Fleur Jaeggy Fleur Jaeggy is often noted for her terse and telegraphic style, which somehow brews up a profound paradox th...
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Murder as a Fine Art
David MorrellA brilliant historical mystery series begins: in gaslit Victorian London, writer Thomas De Quincey must become a detective to clear his own name. Thomas De Quincey, infamous for hi...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition. VOLUME IV
Thomas De QuinceyThe NOVELS OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period w...
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Thomas De Quincey
Robert Morrison & Daniel S. RobertsThe ongoing critical fascination with Thomas De Quincey and the burgeoning recognition of the centrality of his writings to the Romantic age and beyond necessitates a critical exam...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition.VOL XII
Thomas De QuinceyThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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The Works of Thomas de Quincey. Riverside edition. VOLUME VII
Thomas De QuinceyThe POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging ...
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Beauties selected from the writings of Thomas De Quincey.
Thomas De QuinceyThe POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging ...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 20
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the final part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part III vol 19
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the final part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey. Edited from the original MSS., with introductions and notes. By Alexander H. Japp. Volume II.
Thomas De Quincey & Alexander Hay JappThe NOVELS OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period w...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 2
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the first part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part I Vol 7
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the first part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey&...
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Inspector of the Dead
David MorrellLegendary thriller writer David Morrell transports readers to the fogbound streets of London, where a killer plots to assisinate Queen Victoria. The year is 1855. The Crimean War i...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1
Thomas De QuinceyWith centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...
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The Collected Writing of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II
Thomas De QuinceyWith centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...
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The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Part II vol 13
Grevel Lindop & Barry SymondsThomas De Quincey (17851859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early19th century. This is the second part of a 21volume set presenting De Quincey...
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The Uncollected Writings of Thomas De Quincey. With a preface and annotations by James Hogg.
Thomas De Quincey & James HoggThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey. Edited from the original MSS., with introductions and notes. By Alexander H. Japp. VOL. I.
Thomas De Quincey & Alexander Hay JappThe GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of...
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The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2
Thomas De QuinceyWith centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...