On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) by Thomas De Quincey (PDF)

Description

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 aremarkable 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.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐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.

⭐Frightening and influential book on homicide in literature.

⭐Great

⭐I love De Quincey’s work, but I think this is my favourite thus far. His satire is fabulous and often it’s a challenge to weed the facts from the fiction. I also think the conclusions he draws are probably more relevant today than when he wrote them.

⭐What can I say. I love his work. Very readable and enjoyable.

⭐Excellent

Keywords

Free Download On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) in PDF format
On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) PDF Free Download
Download On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) 2006 PDF Free
On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) 2006 PDF Free Download
Download On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics) PDF
Free Download Ebook On Murder (Oxford World’s Classics)