DE QUINCEY, Thomas. (1785-1859). Autograph letter fragment, unsigned, to unidentified recipient, n.p., n.d. 4 pages, 8vo (top edges discoloured and chipped).
DE QUINCEY, Thomas. (1785-1859). Autograph letter fragment, unsigned, to unidentified recipient, n.p., n.d. 4 pages, 8vo (top edges discoloured and chipped). ON DICKENS, JOHNSON AND ADDICTION: On Dickens, De Quincey offers a scathing critique of the novelist's 'extravagances' -- particularly the characters of Little Nell and her gambling grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop , providing a revealing insight into his own psychology as an addict. 'Whatever may be the separate beauty of Nell's position ... is dreadfully marred to me by the extravagance and caricature (as so often happens in D.) of the gambling insanity in the old man. D., like all novelists, anxious only for effect, misunderstands the true impulse in obstinate, incorrigible gamesters: it is not faith, unconquerable faith, in their luck; it the very opp[osite] principle -- a despair of their own luck'. The letter concludes with a scathy discussion of the relationship between Samuel Johnson and Richard Savage, and wih a bold declaration of his literary ambitions: to 'transcend all journalism high or low, and through 50 different channels I will soon make this mob of a Public hear on both sides of its deaf head things that it will not like.'
DE QUINCEY, Thomas. (1785-1859). Autograph letter fragment, unsigned, to unidentified recipient, n.p., n.d. 4 pages, 8vo (top edges discoloured and chipped).
DE QUINCEY, Thomas. (1785-1859). Autograph letter fragment, unsigned, to unidentified recipient, n.p., n.d. 4 pages, 8vo (top edges discoloured and chipped). ON DICKENS, JOHNSON AND ADDICTION: On Dickens, De Quincey offers a scathing critique of the novelist's 'extravagances' -- particularly the characters of Little Nell and her gambling grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop , providing a revealing insight into his own psychology as an addict. 'Whatever may be the separate beauty of Nell's position ... is dreadfully marred to me by the extravagance and caricature (as so often happens in D.) of the gambling insanity in the old man. D., like all novelists, anxious only for effect, misunderstands the true impulse in obstinate, incorrigible gamesters: it is not faith, unconquerable faith, in their luck; it the very opp[osite] principle -- a despair of their own luck'. The letter concludes with a scathy discussion of the relationship between Samuel Johnson and Richard Savage, and wih a bold declaration of his literary ambitions: to 'transcend all journalism high or low, and through 50 different channels I will soon make this mob of a Public hear on both sides of its deaf head things that it will not like.'
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