Opis: Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint) - Masson David

Excerpt from Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 6

How firmly De Quincey held by this notion of the distinctive characteristic of the "Essay," as compared with other kinds of writing, appears from the striking words in which, after referring to the three above-named essays as examples of his own efforts in this line, he claims the merit of fidelity to his principle, in intention at least, in all his other efforts of the same general character. "These specimens," he says, meaning Cicero, The Csors, and The Essenes, are sufficient for the purpose of informing the reader that I do not write without a thoughtful consideration of my subject, and also that to think reasonably upon any question has never been allowed by me as a sufficient ground for writing upon it, unless I believed myself able to offer some considerable novelty." What a panic in the writing industry, what a dropping of pens, what a suppression of cartloads of intended matter for the press, if this principle of De Quincey's were made imperative, - viz. the principle (to state it in its fullest form) that all literature worthy of the name must, in some way or other, and to some extent or other, consist of the previously unknown, unimagined, or uncommunicated! Meanwhile it is with Essay literature that we are immediately concerned. Now, although it was to three historical essays that De Quincey pointed as illustrations of his own practice in Essay-writing, that was a mere accident of the moment. He might have pointed to other papers of his, not expressly historical, or less obviously historical, which for that very reason would have perhaps better illustrated his notion of the characteristic distinction of an Essay, - viz, that it should exhibit the strictly speculative or ratiocinative mode of intellect at work in the investigation of some question or the solution of some problem.

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Szczegóły: Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint) - Masson David

Nazwa: Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Masson David
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781330573877
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 458
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint) - Masson David