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An edition like this of De Quincey's most memorable essays was badly needed. Robert Morrison as editor does a good job indeed! (Dr. Antonio Ballesteros-González, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha )
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'For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination' Thomas De Quincey's three essays 'On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts' centre on the notorious career of the murderer John Williams, who in 1811 brutally killed seven people in London's East End. De Quincey's response to Williams's attacks turns morality on its head, celebrating and coolly dissecting the art of murder and its perfections. Ranging from gruesomely vivid reportage and brilliantly funny satiric high jinks to penetrating literary and aesthetic criticism, the essays had a remarkable impact on crime, terror, and detective fiction, as well as on the rise of nineteenth-century decadence. The volume also contains De Quincey's best-known piece of literary criticism, 'On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth', and his finest tale of terror, 'The Avenger', a disturbing exploration of violence, vigilantism, and religious persecution.
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FROM my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth: it was this: the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account: the effect was-that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity: yet, however obstinately I endeavoured with my understanding to comprehend this, for many years I never could see why it should produce such an effect. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
FROM my boyish days I had always felt a great perplexity on one point in Macbeth: it was this: the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I never could account: the effect was-that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity: yet, however obstinately I endeavoured with my understanding to comprehend this, for many years I never could see why it should produce such an effect. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The too long out-of-print On Murder has at last been published in a well-edited and affordable format by OUP. De Quincey's fame is often attached to "Confessions of an Opium Eater" which while having moments of brilliance is distinctly overrated. "On Murder" is both a gem of decadance and a simple parody of the self important and self obsessed writing found in the magazines of the epoch; a medium in which the so called intellectuals of the time would seek to parry one another.
Read it for the fun and the frivolity of a darker, dirtier, more dangerous London.
Read it for the fun and the frivolity of a darker, dirtier, more dangerous London.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mention De Quincy's name and automatically people think of 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater', whether they have read it or not. De Quincy wrote much more than that, and was one of the most brilliant writers of his generation, indeed arguably of any generation.
This collection includes his short literary criticism 'On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth', as well as his gothic short tale 'The Avenger', a story of mass murder in a small German town, which ultimately is a story of vengeance. Of course here also is 'On Murder as One of the Fine Arts', 'Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts', and 'Postscript to On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts', as well three appendices, which are unfinished works.
The On Murder brought De Quincy instant notoriety due to its mixture of irony, satire and aesthetics. Taking the path that murder is an art form, and not mindless violence, De Quincy produced something that will make you laugh out loud, as well as provoke thought. Hugely influential on many people these essays have helped to shape the crime/ murder mystery genres. If you love a good read, then don't overlook this book.
This collection includes his short literary criticism 'On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth', as well as his gothic short tale 'The Avenger', a story of mass murder in a small German town, which ultimately is a story of vengeance. Of course here also is 'On Murder as One of the Fine Arts', 'Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts', and 'Postscript to On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts', as well three appendices, which are unfinished works.
The On Murder brought De Quincy instant notoriety due to its mixture of irony, satire and aesthetics. Taking the path that murder is an art form, and not mindless violence, De Quincy produced something that will make you laugh out loud, as well as provoke thought. Hugely influential on many people these essays have helped to shape the crime/ murder mystery genres. If you love a good read, then don't overlook this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Was Justice Denied?
1 Feb 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Robert Morrison's edition of de Quincey's various essays on murder is in keeping with the tradition of Oxford classics one of the best available - the text, as far as I can determine, is accurate and the footnotes informative. The major flaw is that Morrison, in his introductory materials as well as footnotes, consistently treats the guilt of John Williams in the Ratcliffe Highway murders and his "suicide" at Newgate as matters of proven fact. In their 1990 book "The Maul and the Pear Tree," the most recent historical look at the murders. P.D. James and T.A. Critchley make a strong case that Williams was in fact as much an innocent victim as those murdered and that his convenient "suicide" was a murder carried out by incompetent, corrupt local police (remember, this was well before the days of Scotland Yard) who were worried that if WIlliams got a chance in court to recuse the "confession" into which he had been bullied, public outrage over the murders would turn against them instead (James and Critchley suggest the real killer may have been "Long Billy" Amplas, a hulking merchant sailor of criminal habits and homicidal temper known to have been in the vicinity of both crimes, but admit that at this point the trail is too cold to be sure). Morrison was aware of "The Maul and the Peartree," since he quotes it in a footnote, but apparently ignored its carefully-reasoned conclusions, possibly because it would have been less compelling to present de Quincey's work while noting that it may have been based on a blatant miscarriage of justice.
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