Special Correspondence THE NEW YORK TIMES. New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. *Does not include ...

“Romantic acolyte, professional doppelganger, transcendental hack”: thus Frances Wilson characterises Thomas De Quincey at the beginning of her new biography. It is a bravura opening to a book that ...

In a gesture of admiration, Charles Baudelaire devoted half of his Artificial Paradises to a translation of Thomas De Quincey’s memoirs. “The work on opium has been written,” he explained, “and in a ...

Drugs are nothing new. As researchers Russil Durrant and Jo Thakker tell us in their 2003 book Substance Use & Abuse, drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, opium and cannabis have been used for thousands of ...

ONE good test to apply to an author is to read his works continuously, and take in a new sense the “ benefit of the doubt” which a rapid succession and contrast of one’s moods in reading must excite.

The letter arrived at Dove Cottage in July 1803, having travelled from its source in Liverpool down to London, and thence north again, to the Lake District. The remarkable thing, given its contents, ...

As The English Opium Eater shows, Thomas De Quincey’s addictions encompassed more than just the drug, says Jonathan Bate 'It was available everywhere,’ Robert Morrison reminds us, 'chemists and ...

He made opium sublime, hero-worshipped Wordsworth and was obsessed with murder … an exceptional book about a life lived in character If ever there was a one-book wonder, that wonder was Thomas De ...

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. There is a Thomas De Quincey dilemma that each literary generation, drawn by his luminous insights and poignant ...