Miscellaneous Essays

by Thomas de Quincey

he Hunter Thompson of the 19th Century, de Quincey is best known for his Confessions of an English Opium Eater (an activity shared with his hero, Samuel Coleridge, much to Wordsworth’s dismay). However, de Quincey’s literary genius is best captured in his essays, and, according to His immediate influence extended to Edgar Allan Poe, Fitz Hugh Ludlow and Charles Baudelaire, but even major 20th century writers such as Jorge Luis Borges admired and claimed to be partly influenced by his work.

First
DE QUINCEY'S WRITINGS.
It is the intention of the publishers to issue, at intervals, a complete collection of Mr. De Quincey's Writings, uniform with this volume. The first four volumes of the series will contain,

I. Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Suspiria De Profundis.

II. Biographical Essays.

III. Miscellaneous Essays.

IV. The Cæsars.

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS.

BY

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

CONTENTS.

ON THE KNOCKING AT THE GATE, IN MACBETH

MURDER, CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS

SECOND PAPER ON MURDER

JOAN OF ARC

THE ENGLISH MAIL COACH

THE VISION OF SUDDEN DEATH

DINNER, REAL AND REPUTED

ON

THE KNOCKING AT THE GATE,

IN MACBETH.

From my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth. It was the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account. The effect was, that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity; yet, however obstinately I endeavored with my understanding to comprehend this, for many years I never could see why it should produce such an effect

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

194 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Thomas de Quincey was an English author and intellectual, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821).
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_d...

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this mainly for the essay Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts, but the opening Macbeth essay got me to commit to the whole thing; it was funny and a bit dark. The murder essay was also funny and dark, although much more long-winded. But oh boy, from there we just got long-winded, not funny except on rare occasion. Meandering trains of thought, an overwhelming amount of untranslated Latin, and your period-typical misogyny, racism, and imperialism round this out as not one to recommend on the whole.

[zunggg · Rating 3 out of 5]

"On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" is a one-inch punch of psychological criticism in which de Q's absurdly excessive self-insight finds its finest expression in a single scene from Shakespeare. "The English Mail-Coach" is a phantasmagoric Wild Hunt of an essay, jouncing through the national character, empire, the author's fancy-free youth, and detouring into slow-motion opium nightmares and a delirious symbolical dream-sequence that reminded me of the hurtling, headlong dreams I'm prone to on planes. But "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts" doesn't live up to its tantalising title, and the interminable piece on Roman eating habits is extremely pointless. There's also an essay on Joan of Arc, who I've never been too excited about, which is described in a 1981 NYT article as a "necrophiliac paean", an assessment I think I agree with. Still and all, there's really no medicine like de Quincey's patent tonic, a bona fide strange brew.

[Leni Iversen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remarkably longwinded and dull for a satirist.

[Carrie Laben · Rating 4 out of 5]

What on earth was this guy on?!?! [Checks notes] Oh.

[Marley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew de Quincey was so funny! Much in these essays sound contemporary (be forwarned that he likes to use Latin--a lot of Latin--with usually no translation), but other than that,I really enjoyed this collection. He writes delightfully about murder, the history of dinner, and thoughtfully Joan of Arc.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read English Mail Coach/Sudden Death/Dream Fugue previously, in a penguin edition containing Confessions and Suspiria. That essay was more endearing in that context. The notes and annotations in the penguin edition are quite nice.