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For what types of literary works is Thomas De Quincey known?

For what types of literary works is Thomas De Quincey known?

Thomas De Quincey (b. 1785–d. 1859), autobiographer and essayist, is best known for Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821, 1856), the foundational modern account of drug addiction.

How did Thomas de Quincey define literature?

In his critical writings De Quincey consistently maintains that. literature is the noblest of the arts, not “a mere embellishment of life” but “one of its deep-sunk props,” and that it fulfills its supreme end. by conveying “the sense of power and the illimitable incarnated as it. were in pleasure.

What is literature for De Quincey?

Thomas De Quincey
Died December 8, 1859 (aged 74) Edinburgh, Scotland
Resting place St Cuthbert’s Churchyard, Edinburgh
Notable works Confessions of an English Opium-Eater “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth”
Signature

What are the two kinds of literature according to Thomas De Quincey?

There is, first, the Literature of Kowledge; and, secondly, the Literature of Power.

What makes a literature didactic?

Definition of Didacticism Didacticism describes a type of literature that is written to inform or instruct the reader, especially in moral or political lessons. While they are also meant to entertain the audience, the aesthetics in a didactic work of literature are subordinate to the message it imparts.

What gives literature power?

Literature is a powerful storytelling technology that unites us across space and time. Literature chronicles and preserves the ever-evolving human story. It invites us to reflect on our lives and, in discussion with others, to add our voices to the exploration of timeless human themes. Literature makes us think.

Where was Thomas de Quincey born?

Manchester, United Kingdom
Thomas De Quincey/Place of birth

What was Thomas De Quincey’s most important work?

Between 1835 and 1849, Tait’s published a series of De Quincey’s reminiscences of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey and other figures among the Lake Poets – a series that taken together constitutes one of his most important works. Along with his opium addiction, debt was one of the primary constraints of De Quincey’s adult life.

When did Robert De Quincey first try opium?

De Quincey first tried opium in the autumn of 1804. He was spending the season in London during a break from college, and experienced a toothache. He assumed it was because he had recently stopped washing his hair in cold water, so he did this right away in hopes of alleviating the pain.

What kind of ailment did Thomas De Quincey have?

A number of medical practitioners have speculated on the physical ailments that inspired and underlay De Quincey’s resort to opium, and searched the corpus of his autobiographical works for evidence. One possibility is “a mild … case of infantile paralysis” that he may have contracted from Wordsworth’s children.

When did Thomas De Quincey publish the confessions?

De Quincey edited and revised his works for the Hogg edition; the 1856 second edition of the Confessions was prepared for inclusion in Selections Grave and Gay…. The first volume of that edition appeared in May 1853, and the fourteenth and last in January 1860, a month after the author’s death.