DE QUINCEY, Thomas. ON STYLE AND CONVERSATION A SERIES OF ESSAYS. Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh. 1862.1st edition, hb, thick 12mo, pp. [10], 577.

"Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is one of the greatest English prose writers of the nineteenth century. He deeply influenced Edgar Allen Poe, and numbers Dickers, Proust and Virginia Woolf among his many fans."  See: (http://www.pickeringchatto.com/dequincey/htm).

As a young man, he spent a short time at Oxford, where he became addicted to opium. In 1809, he went to live near Southey and Wordsworth near Grasmere, where he set himself up as an author, mainly of magazine articles. His "Confessions of an Opium-Eater" appeared as a serial in 1821, and brought him instant fame. In 1828 he moved to Edinburgh, and for 20 years wrote for various magazines (see Cambridge Bio. Encyc. p.268). The "Advertisement" at the beginning of this very scarce title states: "The following Essays on kindred subjects have been selected from the works of Mr De Quincey. In justice to the Author's memory it may be necessary to mention, that "The Letters" appear here in their original form, without the extension and revision which it was his intention to have given them." Edinburgh, 1862. Contents include: "Letters to a Young Man Whose Education has been neglected"; "Language"; "Style"; Rhetoric"; "Conversation"; "Superficial Knowledge"; and "Dialogues of Three Templars of Political Economy". Bound in publisher's original blind stamped cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Boards bumped and scuffed; front and rear endpapers splitting, but binding still tight. Contents clean and unmarked, with surprisingly little age-toning. Overall, in good to good plus, condition.

 PRICE: $750 Cdn/$500 US        #28505
 
 
 
 
 

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