On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts - Softcover

De Quincy, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1646795571 ISBN 13: 9781646795574

Publisher: Cosimo Classics, 1827

Synopsis

"People begin to see that something more goes to the composition of a fine murder than two blockheads to kill and be killed-a knife-a purse-and a dark lane..."

-Thomas De Quincy

In On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts (1827), Thomas De Quincy used a series of murders, allegedly committed in London in 1811 by John Williams, as the centerpiece of a satirical essay that whimsically discusses the aesthetics of murder. In this commentary, De Quincy uses black humor to make a tongue-in-cheek statement about the impact of crime. His writing had a remarkable impact on crime, terror, and detective fiction and was praised by critics like G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell.

About this title

About the Author

THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859) an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), was educated at schools in Bath and Winkfield, but left Oxford without a degree. In 1807 he settled in London, where he became close friends of the writers Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. De Quincey's influence was later seen in the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cosimo Classics
• Publication date: 1827
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1646795571
• ISBN 13: 9781646795574
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40