Thomas De Quincey

Thomas De Quincey was an English essayist and critic best known for his work, 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater'. Born in a prosperous family, Quincey's tryst at writing started after his brief elopement and comeback into the family. During his teens, he widely read the works of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and was influenced by them. Interestingly, Quincey's literary career started as a means to meet the financial needs. He started off by contributing articles in various magazines and periodicals and soon found his first success with the book, 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater'. Semi-autobiographical, the book gave a detailed account of his opium addiction and its effect on his life. Following the success, he came up with a large plethora of works in wide ranging field, from history to fiction, literary criticism to biographies and so on. His work stood out for its imaginative prose style that mixed an elucidation of other's ideas with his personal reflection. De Quincey's work influenced later literary figures such as Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire