This second volume of The Collected Writing of Thomas De Quincey gathers essays and reflections by the celebrated English author best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. De Quincey was a versatile and learned writer whose work ranged across autobiography, criticism, history, and meditation on a wide variety of subjects.
The volume showcases his distinctive prose style, by turns ornate, digressive, and deeply thoughtful, along with his wide reading and reflections on education, literature, and the life of the mind. As a major figure of English Romantic prose, De Quincey rewards close reading. For those interested in nineteenth-century literature, the essay form, and the intellectual culture of the period, this collection offers rich and varied material.