Gents Mag 1857 part 2 p.107

Gents Mag 1857 part 2 p.107




	introduction


	list, 3rd qtr 19th century

	Gentleman's Magazine 1857 part 2 p.107
biography Thomas de Quincey
	Thomas de Quincey, Biography THOMAS DE QUINCEY^a. THIRTY-SIX years ago, within a month or two, the reading public were delighted and perplexed by an article from a new contributor, which had appeared in two consecutive numbers of the "London Magazine." Just at that time the "London" was amongst the most popular and prosperous of monthly periodicals, and it well deserved its reputation and success. Its celebrated editor, John Scott, had indeed fallen in a duel six months before; but there still remained amongst the writers whom he had enlisted in the work, men as able as Cary, Cunningham, Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb, who were contributing to it some of their most powerful and charming compositions. Even in this company the new contributor's article held to distance all competitors both in brilliancy and depth; and even the masculine vigour of the "Table-Talk," and the inimitable delicacy of "Elia's Essays," were slighted for a while in the tumultuous burst of approbation with which "The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" were receieved. This was Mr. De Quincey's first effort as a writer for the public, and it was a noble harbinger of the long series of his subsequent productions. All the characteristic qualities which an examination of the whole collection of his writings would incline us to attribute to him, may be found, in greater or in less degree, in the "Confessions." It was obvious then - and the little work, in its original form, bears witness to the same facts now - that the author had at his command far larger stores of knowledge, and powers of mind which had been subjected to a far richer and completer culture, than those which the common herd of men of letters wield; that he combined, in a word, philosophey, and scholarship, and science, and imagination, with an almost unequalled mastery of the arts and ornaments of speech. We believe, indeed, that it would be hard to find, in all our recent literature, another first work as stikingly indicative of genuine and mature strength. But the "Confessions" were far from being confined to the one subject of Opium-eating. Indeed, for any parallel to the absolute unreservedness of De Quincey's communications concerning himself, we question whether it would not be almost necessary to go back to the Essays of Montaigne or the "Confessions" of Rousseau. Along with the history which he gave of his own indulgence in the "accursed drug," he associated a pretty complete
	^a "Selections, Grave and Gay, from Writings Published and Unpublished, by Thomas De Quincey." (Edinburgh: James Hogg. London: R. Groombridge and Sons.)

	next page

Lakes Guides menu.