In general, in all these writings, DeQuincey deals chiefly with intellectual conceptions and is concerned with objects only to a compara tively slight degree and for an ulterior pur pose—that of showing the underlying subtlety. The apparent exceptions to this generalization lie in his descriptions of particular people, like Wordsworth, the particular scenes of such an essay as
DeQuincey differs strikingly from such writers as Shakespeare, Addison, Johnson and Lamb, in that it is impossible to trace him through any period of apprenticeship before coming to his own. Rather he is like Swift, in that he took to publishing rather late, jumped at once into success and continued pouring out work of striking quality. Like Swift, DeQuin cey, once embarked, knew no let or hindrance to the course of his expression. Unlike Swift, however, he never took an active interest in affairs and his writing is in no wise concerned with the practical movements of the time. Hence the course of his life after 1821 is, from the point of view of his work, unimportant, and any account to the last 39 years is an account of the interests of his mind. These were so varied that it is impossible to trace the history of his mind with any definiteness, but a few observations may be made. If anything, the decade between 1841 and 1850 is the most pro lific, and on the whole represents the climax of his activity. In that decade, too, the pre
vailing interest is mainly in philosophy and criticism, whereas the preceding 10 years were particularly rich in history and biography. On the whole, setting aside such a striking per formance as the 'Confessions,' there is a tend ency toward originality. His criticism and philosophy are less formal and less of the na ture of summary, while it is especially to be noted that, in narrative, his adaptations of Ger man tales and his own German-bred romances gave place to such original pieces as 'The Eng lish Mail Coach> and 'The Spanish Military Nun.> There is in the decade between 1841 and 1850 much reversion to the original type of the 'Confessions.> Probably the fact that De Quincey did a good deal of hack work in the decade beginning with 1830, when he first es tablished himself at Edinburgh, would account for the general inferiority of that decade to the following, and yet many of his best pieces belong there.
DeQuincey is usually regarded as among the English masters of prose style. The appel lation, with regard to him, signifies a marvel lous and unfailing command of means of ex pressing very minute shades of thought and feel ing, combined with the power to write, on oc casion, sonorously, grandly and very wittily. He is always discursive and intricate, to a de gree almost unparalleled among masters of prose. As a critic he has few superiors, and as a thinker few masters in point of delicacy and exactness, but many in profundity. See CON FESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER, THE; DEQUIN CEY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES.
Bibliography.— The best edition of his col lected works is by David Masson (14 vols., London 1889-90). Separate editions of his more popular works are numerous. 'Posthu mous Works> were edited by Japp (ib. 1891 93). Consult also 'Lives> by H. Page (2 vols., 1881); Masson (in (English Men of Letters Series)); Leslie Stephen (in (Dictionary of National Biography)); Findlay (London 1885). The best essays are by Saintsbury (in in English Literature,' 1780-1860) ; Stephen (in (Hours in a Library') ; Hogg, cey and His Friends> (1895).