WRITER

Thomas De Quincey

1785 - 1859

Photo of Thomas De Quincey

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Thomas Penson De Quincey (; né Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 1785 – 8 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Thomas De Quincey has received more than 775,417 page views. His biography is available in 42 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 39 in 2019). Thomas De Quincey is the 1,016th most popular writer (up from 1,182nd in 2019), the 780th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 945th in 2019) and the 93rd most popular British Writer.

Thomas de Quincey is most famous for his autobiographical essay "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater."

Memorability Metrics

  • 780k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 61.58

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 42

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.75

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.66

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Literary reminiscences
English literature
1851
Autobiographic sketches
Biography & Autobiography
1853
The Works Of Thomas De Quincey
1862
Confessions of an English opium eater
1822
Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers
1853
The Collected Writings Of Thomas De Quincey
1889
The lock and key library
Detective and mystery stories, Accessible book, Protected DAISY
1909
The Collected Writings Of Thomas De Quincey
Bibliography
1889
The Works Of Thomas De Quincey
Collected works (single author, multi-form)
1862
De Quincey's writings
Collected works (single author, multi-form)
2005
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Drug addicts, Opium abuse, Authors, biography
1821
Confessions of an English opium eater
Biography, Opium abuse, Drug addicts
I have often been asked how I first came to be a regular opium-eater, and have suffered, very unjustly, in the opinion of my acquaintance from being reputed to have brought upon myself all the sufferings which I shall have to record, by a long course of indulgence in this practice purely for the sake of creating an artificial state of pleasurable excitement. This, however, is a misrepresentation of my case. True it is that for nearly ten years I did occasionally take opium for the sake of the exquisite pleasure it gave me; but so long as I took it with this view I was effectually protected from all material bad consequences by the necessity of interposing long intervals between the several acts of indulgence, in order to renew the pleasurable sensations. It was not for the purpose of creating pleasure, but of mitigating pain in the severest degree, that I first began to use opium as an article of daily diet. In the twenty-eighth year of my age a most painful affection of the stomach, which I had first experienced about ten years before, attacked me in great strength. This affection had originally been caused by extremities of hunger, suffered in my boyish days. During the season of hope and redundant happiness which succeeded (that is, from eighteen to twenty- four) it had slumbered; for the three following years it had revived at intervals; and now, under unfavourable circumstances, from depression of spirits, it attacked me with a violence that yielded to no remedies but opium.
1822

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Thomas De Quincey ranks 1,016 out of 7,302. Before him are Juan Antonio Villacañas, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Noah Gordon, William Gibson, and Vasily Zhukovsky. After him are André Bazin, August Kubizek, Mary Higgins Clark, Shūsaku Endō, Egill Skallagrímsson, and Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1785, Thomas De Quincey ranks 9. Before him are Jacob Grimm, Karl Drais, Alessandro Manzoni, Bettina von Arnim, Lin Zexu, and Claude-Louis Navier. After him are Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Pierre Louis Dulong, John James Audubon, Jean Charles Athanase Peltier, Hans Karl von Diebitsch, and Florestan I, Prince of Monaco. Among people deceased in 1859, Thomas De Quincey ranks 16. Before him are Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, Washington Irving, Bettina von Arnim, Louis Spohr, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, and Archduke John of Austria. After him are John Brown, Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Abd al-Rahman of Morocco, John Austin, and Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Others Born in 1785

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Others Deceased in 1859

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Thomas De Quincey ranks 780 out of 8,785. Before him are Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881), Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset (1519), Jean Simmons (1929), Richard Wilson (1936), Ken Hensley (1945), and Julie Walters (1950). After him are John Gielgud (1904), Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868), James Black (1924), James Joseph Sylvester (1814), P. D. James (1920), and Naomi Watts (1968).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Thomas De Quincey ranks 93. Before him are Percy Fawcett (1867), H. Rider Haggard (1856), James Hadley Chase (1906), John Fowles (1926), Samuel Richardson (1689), and Henry Fielding (1707). After him are P. D. James (1920), Thomas Malory (1405), Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757), Diana Wynne Jones (1934), Robert Graves (1895), and John Berger (1926).

British born Writers

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