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Page 7
* * * * *
The authoritative edition of _De Quincey's Works_ is that edited by
David Masson and published in fourteen volumes by Adam and Charles
Black (Edinburgh). For American students the _Riverside Edition_, in
twelve volumes (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston), will be found
convenient. The most satisfactory _Life of De Quincey_ is the one by
Masson in the _English Men of Letters_ series. Of a more anecdotal
type are the _Life of De Quincey_, by H.A. Page, whose real name is
Alexander H. Japp (2 vols., New York, 1877), and _De Quincey
Memorials_ (New York, 1891), by the same author. Very interesting is
the brief volume, _Recollections of Thomas De Quincey_, by John R.
Findlay (Edinburgh, 1886), who also contributes the paper on _De
Quincey_ to the _Encyclop�dia Britannica_. _De Quincey and his
Friends_, by James Hogg (London, 1895), is another volume of
recollections, souvenirs, and anecdotes, which help to make real their
subject's personality. Besides the editor, other writers contribute to
this volume: Richard Woodhouse, John R. Findlay, and John Hill Burton,
who has given under the name "Papaverius," a picturesque description
of the Opium-Eater. The student should always remember that De
Quincey's own chapters in the _Autobiographic Sketches_, and the
_Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, which are among the most
charming and important of his writings, are also the most
authoritative and most valuable sources of our information concerning
him. In reading about De Quincey, do not fail to read De Quincey
himself.
The best criticism of the Opium-Eater's work is found in William
Minto's _Manual of English Prose Literature_ (Ginn & Co.). A shorter
essay is contained in Saintsbury's _History of Nineteenth Century
Literature_. A very valuable list of all De Quincey's writings, in
chronological order, is given by Fred N. Scott, in his edition of De
Quincey's essays on _Style, Rhetoric_, and _Language_ (Allyn & Bacon).
Numerous magazine articles may be found by referring to Poole's Index.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Autobiographic Sketches_, Chap. I.
[2] _Ibid._
[3] _Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, Part II.
[4] _De Quincey_ (_English Men of Letters_), David Masson, p. 110.
HOW TO READ DE QUINCEY.
"De Quincey's sixteen volumes of magazine articles are
full of brain from beginning to end. At the rate of
about half a volume a day, they would serve for a
month's reading, and a month continuously might be
worse expended. There are few courses of reading from
which a young man of good natural intelligence would
come away more instructed, charmed, and stimulated, or,
to express the matter as definitely as possible, with
his mind more _stretched_. Good natural intelligence, a
certain fineness of fibre, and some amount of scholarly
education, have to be presupposed, indeed, in all
readers of De Quincey. But, even for the fittest
readers, a month's complete and continuous course of De
Quincey would be too much. Better have him on the
shelf, and take down a volume at intervals for one or
two of the articles to which there may be an immediate
attraction. An evening with De Quincey in this manner
will always be profitable."
DAVID MASSON, _Life of De Quincey_, Chap. XI.
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS;
OR, FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS PEOPLE FROM THE RUSSIAN
TERRITORIES TO THE FRONTIERS OF CHINA.
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