Thomas De Quincey is one of the most important English essayists of the nineteenth-century. His writings include novels, short stories, translations of fiction mainly from the German, and works of literary theory, as well as essays critical, historical, political, economic, scientific, philological, and philosophical. He is best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, his essays “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts”, and his biographical accounts of leading contemporary figures such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Thomas De Quincey was born in Manchester on 15 August 1785. He was the fourth of eight children of Elizabeth Penson and Thomas Quincey, a prosperous linen …
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Citation: Morrison, Robert. "Thomas De Quincey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1189, accessed 22 November 2024.]
