De quincy biography
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On this occasion the adventurer did not reach the Lake District and between July and November 1802, spent his time tramping about until, bereft of funds, he made his way to London. He was a very solitary student who read widely and absorbed the Classics readily. His early works were mainly for newspapers and magazines. It is testament to the impact of Ann’s kindness that she plays a major part in his celebrated work, the autobiographical, ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’, where the author recalls “the noble action which she there performed.”
Eventually reunited with his family, De Quincey returned to education but eventually left Worcester College, Oxford without his degree.
The writer’s name may be misspelt but he will be remembered in the city as a darker, more urban alternative to the Romantic masters.
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By Edward Cummings. Among the people he encountered was a 17-year-old ‘street-walker’ called Ann, who in addition to treating the youth as a brother, spent her only money securing him a lifesaving tonic to combat exhaustion.
It appears that he spent little time at university and never graduated. More instructive at this period is perhaps the death of his sister, Elizabeth, a sacred figure in De Quincey’s eyes who through her passing paradoxically helped the writer towards his future achievements.
In 1837 Margaret passed away and De Quincey moved to Edinburgh in a bid to escape debt.
His relationship with Wordsworth had become sour, partly as a result of the poet’s haughty attitude towards his wife, and the rest of his work, including ‘Suspiria De Profundis’, another autobiographical piece, was composed under the dark cloud of reduced circumstances.
By the time of De Quincey’s death in 1859, and despite his numerous volumes of work including essays and translations, ‘Confessions’ was his only definitive piece of work.
Online
De Quincey, Thomas, Confessions of an English Opium Eater , full text, http://users.lycaeum.org/∼sputnik/Ludlow/Texts/Opium/prelim.html (October 3, 2006).
Whale, John C., Thomas De Quincey's Reluctant Autobiography , Barnes & Noble, 1984.
In 1807 De Quincey realised his childhood ambition and began to develop a friendship with Wordsworth, with the pair’s association eventually resulting in his relocating to the Lake District, where an immersion in Wordsworth’s literary haven enabled him to develop as a writer.
A slightly less celebrated figure from this vibrant period is Thomas De Quincey, a writer who idolised but never emulated Wordsworth, despite his talent. Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821) contains many classical allusions and Latin quotations.
In 1817 de Quincey married Margaret (Peggy) Simpson; they had eight children before her death in 1837.
Lindop, Grevel, The Opium-Eater: A Life of Thomas De Quincey , Taplinger, 1981.
de Quincey initially was educated at Salford but in 1792, de Quincey's father died and his mother took the family to live in Bath.
Thomas De Quincey
The literary movement that spread throughout Europe in the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars furnished Britain with some of its most celebrated literary figures.