The movement of his
discourse is that of the broad river, not in its weight or force
perhaps, but in its easy flowing progress, in its serene, unhurried
certainty of its end. To be sure, only too often the waters overflow
their banks and run far afield in alien channels. Yet, when great power
over the instrument of language is joined to so much constructive
skill, the result is narrative art of high quality,--an achievement
that must be in no small measure the solid basis of De Quincey's fame.
III. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
I. WORKS
1. _The Collected Writings of Thomas de Quincey_. New and enlarged
edition by David Masson. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1889-1890. [New
York: The Macmillan Co. 14 vols., with footnotes, a preface to each
volume, and index. Reissued in cheaper form. The standard edition.]
2. _The Works of Thomas de Quincey_. Riverside Edition. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1877. [12 vols., with notes and index.]
3. _Selections from De Quincey._ Edited with an Introduction and
Notes, by M. H. Turk. Athenaeum Press Series. Boston, U.S.A., and
London: Ginn and Company, 1902. ["The largest body of selections from
De Quincey recently published.... The selections are _The affliction
of Childhood, Introduction to the World of Strife, A Meeting with Lamb,
A Meeting with Coleridge, Recollections of Wordsworth, Confessions, A
Portion of Suspiria, The English Mail-Coach, Murder as one of the Fine
Arts, Second Paper, Joan of Arc,_ and _On the Knocking at the Gate
in 'Macbeth.
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