353:), the second paper on murder is written by the author of the purloined speech in the first essay. He defends his morality, insisting he only appreciates the aesthetic qualities of murder and never commits it. He also dissuades aspirants to the art, "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."
429:. He is headed to a hosier shop owned by Mr. Marr who lives there with his wife and 8-month baby. There is also a teenage apprentice and a serving girl named Mary. As Marr closes the shop, he sends Mary out for oysters. When she returns, the shop is locked. She knocks and hears someone approach from inside. She grows alarmed and convinced that something is wrong. She wakes a neighbor who climbs the garden wall to investigate.
204:, de Quincey also published "The Last Days of Kant", whose work he studied closely. "On Murder" is a prolonged satire of Kant's aesthetic theory. The essay was enthusiastically received, and the following year, de Quincey pitched a sequel of sorts. He wrote "Peter Anthony Fonk" in a reportorial style based on a German murderer recorded in the
444:
Wilson is soon caught because he returned to his boarding house, despite stealing over a hundred pounds. He hangs himself in jail. The essay concludes with a brief summary of the M'Keans' murder of a servant girl during a home invasion. They panic when a boy flees the house and abandon their robbery
436:
Mr. Williamson runs a tavern with his wife and a housemaid. They have a 9-year old granddaughter and there is a journeyman boarding with them. Wilson begins by throwing
Williamson down the stairs of the cellar and slashing his throat. The maid cries out, waking the journeyman who goes downstairs to
239:
recalled that when de
Quincey was frequently depressed, he could reliably cheer him up and prod him to write by inquiring after the doomed Baker in "On Murder". He would ask, "What would the Baker say?", de Quincey would perk up and reply, "Well, that is a good idea. We have not yet considered what
440:
He witnesses the murderer in the parlor trying to unlock various drawers. The maid and Mrs. Williamson are dead at his feet. The journeyman hurries back to his room, climbs out his window, and alerts passersby that the Marr's murderer is at work. A mob forms and the murderer leaps out a window to
432:
He finds the rear door opened and the inhabitants of the house slaughtered. Their heads have been smashed and their throats slashed, even the infant. London is horrified by the massacre. 30,000 people attend the Marr's funeral the following week. Just four days later another slaughter occurs on
280:
to conceal a victim from his potential murderer. The speaker proposes to merely consider murder from an aesthetic perspective. He points to woes like fires, thefts, and ulcers, "to be imperfect being their essence, the very greatness of their imperfection becomes their perfection."
465:, in that both writers "imagine the contrary, the contrast, of what he is describing, thinks what it might appear to spectators with different interests..." De Quincey imagines thieves intruded on by unsuspecting tourists, and the murderer considered by the aesthete.
322:. He also relates the story of an amateur murderer who picks a baker as his victim. The baker defends himself by boxing 26 rounds with his attacker but is deceased when the 27th begins. He discusses the titular spree of John Williams and talks about how
206:
364:
inspired Toad's return to the Club. He insisted on a celebratory Dinner. The secretary who recorded the Dinner went missing and was presumed murdered. The rest of the essay is an adaptation of the author's notes from an 1838 Dinner in honor of
376:
was composed in reference to the missing secretary from 1812. The Club joyously sings it throughout the dinner, particularly when Toad-in-the-Hole quotes the chorus as a punchline. Toasts are given to
1101:
182:
in 1818, De
Quincey made a point to expand the paper's normal remit into covering trials for murder and sex crimes. Five years later, De Quincey used John Williams' massacre as a lens for viewing
277:
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337:. He ends by saying the only murder he was ever able to commit was of a cat who was eating bread during a famine and laments that he is unfit for "the higher departments of the art".
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272:
The speech is formally titled "The
Williams' Lecture on Murder, considered as one of the fine arts", and it begins by dismissing the moral concerns of the subject by ridiculing
575:
900:
760:
265:
The essay is styled as a lecture to The
Society of Connoisseurs in Murder, a copy of which "fell into the hands" of a concerned citizen who has forwarded it to
210:. De Quincey submitted the Fonk manuscript with "To the Editor of Blackwood Magazine", a satirical cover letter written in the same vein as "On Murder".
127:
187:
104:
776:
The lecture title is a parody of professional societies' practice of naming speeches after distinguished members of their field. Burwick, 82.
858:
In addition to the year, De
Quincey misstates many of the details of the case, most likely because he was working from memory (Lindop, 379).
480:
De
Quincey's murder essays exerted a strong influence on literary representations of crime and were lauded by writers like Charles Lamb,
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952:
289:
329:
The speech concludes with a primer on choosing victims and circumstances for murder. The speaker believes a good murder must satisfy
229:. In 1844, De Quincey wrote a fragment "A New Paper on Murder as a Fine Art". He planned but never completed a larger work called
556:" (1841) is inspired by de Quincey's essays. De Quincey was writing in a nascent style of reportage that prefigured the similar "
295:
As a way of showing off, the lecturer detours into a history of the assassination of philosophers, beginning with the attempt on
694:
905:
De
Quincey and His Friends: Personal Recollections, Souvenirs and Anecdotes of Thomas De Quincey, His Friends and Associates
765:
De
Quincey and His Friends: Personal Recollections, Souvenirs and Anecdotes of Thomas De Quincey, His Friends and Associates
725:
The Works of Thomas De
Quincey: Vol. 15. Articles from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, 1844–6
553:
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346:
66:
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453:"On Murder" is considered one of De Quincey's masterpieces and particularly emblematic of his idiosyncratic genius.
326:'s crime provoked an impromptu gathering of the Society. One member harrumphed that Thurtell's work was unoriginal.
548:
parodied De Quincey's essays in "Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences". Often seen as the beginning of
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987:
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419:
361:
161:
425:
John Wilson hurries through the night to No. 29 Ratcliff Highway. He is well-dressed with a mallet under his
221:"The Avenger", which features multiple household massacres like those on Ratcliff Highway. In November 1839,
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which doubles the size of the original essay and retells John Williams' killing spree in chilling prose.
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whose work is rated as "so so". He laments the lack of improvement in the art for centuries until the
240:
can be done from that point of view." When de Quincey and Hogg were anthologizing his work in 1854 as
1086:
318:
468:
De Quincey's "Postscript" to the Murder papers has been described as "magnificent" and "immortal".
360:" was such a recluse the other members assumed he had gone mad and committed suicide. In 1812, the
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Writing as himself, De Quincey defends the extremism of satire in his first two essays, citing
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account of a gentleman's club that celebrates homicide from an aesthetic perspective. The
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396:. The Club decided he was going mad again and kicked him out. The writer encloses an
323:
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Blackwood's sons inherited the magazine. In August 1838, they published de Quincey's
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This riff first appears in the cover letter for the rejected "Peter Anthony Fonk" (
462:
373:
392:". Toad-in-the-Hole got so excited he began shooting pistols and calling for his
933:
535:
393:
316:
The lecture resumes with a discussion of modern crimes, drawing on sources like
218:
236:
132:
822:
In all three essays, De Quincey misstates the year of the Ratcliff murders. (
727:. Edited by Frederick Burwick. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2003. 456–460.
334:
330:
269:
in an attempt to expose their perfidy. His cover letter is signed, "X.Y.Z."
307:' recurring fear of being killed, no one bothered to murder the author of
299:'s life. He invents an assassination attempt for Kant. He speculates that
953:
Obsequies of Mr Williams: New Light on De Quincey’s Famous Tale of Murder
418:'s precedent. Because they are forty years in the past, he rehearses the
244:, he edited and expanded "On Murder". It appears in the fourth volume of
426:
397:
381:
366:
145:
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praised William Blackwood for having the nerve to publish the essay.
157:
384:, the Club Committee which had written a report on murder weapons, "
884:
The Letters of David Macbeth Moir to William Blackwood and his Sons
117:"A Second Paper on Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts"
284:
The lecture moves into a pocket history of murder, beginning with
149:
56:
672:
Burwick, Frederick. "De Quincey and the Aesthetics of Violence",
285:
939:
The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811
785:
Super, Robert H. "De Quincey and a Murderer’s Conscience",
624:. Edited by Robert Morrison. Oxford University Press, 2009.
461:
pointed out the similarity of de Quincey's humor method to
227:"Second Paper on Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts"
1052:
Second Paper on Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
303:
was murdered for his valuables. He laments that, despite
472:
judged it the "finest 'horror' short story in English".
794:
The crime was a reworking of a story reported in the
570:
is as much a descendant of de Quincey as Poe's work.
369:, when Toad-in-the-Hole is well over 100 years old.
970:Morrison, Robert. "Poe's De Quincey, Poe's Dupin",
122:
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1102:Works originally published in Blackwood's Magazine
907:. (1895). S. Low, Marston, 1895. 345–6.
767:. (1895). S. Low, Marston, 1895. 183–4.
488:. They are parodied or cited by name in works by
406:that prefigured Burke & Hare by a millennia.
974:, Volume 51, Issue 4. 1 October 2001. Pages 425.
984:The Cinema of Louis Malle: Transatlantic Auteur
873:. Twayne's English Author Series. Twayne, 1969.
198:"On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts"
196:In 1827, he revisited the Williams murders in
22:On Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts
8:
1025:On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
1005:On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
635:On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
601:The Opium-Eater: A Life of Thomas De Quincey
576:On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
445:attempt. They are soon caught and executed.
356:A curmudgeonly member of the Club known as "
142:On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts
128:On Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts
21:
844:. Volume IV. Putnam & Sons, 1918. 131.
660:. Vol. 21, No. 122. February 1827. 135–158.
643:, Vol. 21, No. 122. February 1827. 199–213.
961:, Vol. 68, No. 3. September, 1928. 257–63.
723:Quincey, Thomas de. "Fragments, 1844", in
678:, Volume 27, Issue 2. Spring, 1996. 78-86.
20:
739:The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey
164:committed by John Williams in 1811 are a
588:
1037:On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
921:Selected Writings of Thomas De Quincey
761:Days and Nights with Thomas de Quincey
105:On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
616:
614:
612:
610:
7:
923:. Modern Library/Random House, 1949.
668:
666:
594:
592:
901:On the Genius of Thomas De Quincey
225:ran another sequel by the author:
14:
156:begun in 1827. The essays are a
579:takes its name from the essay.
188:On the Knocking at the Gate in
16:1854 essay by Thomas de Quincey
798:under de Quincey's editorship.
695:Johns Hopkins University Press
349:" (the pseudonymous editor of
1:
604:. J.M. Dent & Sons, 1981.
554:The Murders in the Rue Morgue
541:A Philosophical Investigation
494:Decline of the English Murder
186:arrival at a crime scene in "
942:. Mysterious Press, 1986. 1.
888:Texas Technological College
390:Thugdom in all its branches
378:Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall
1118:
1092:Works by Thomas De Quincey
986:. Edited by Philippe Met.
988:Columbia University Press
791:. 5 December 1936. 1016.
788:Times Literary Supplement
736:Quincey, Thomas de.
231:Confessions of a Murderer
1067:Selections Grave and Gay
1058:on the Internet Archive.
886:, 2 vols. Ph.D. thesis,
714:. August, 1838. 208–233.
690:The Aesthetics of Murder
420:Ratcliff Highway murders
362:Ratcliff Highway murders
242:Selections Grave and Gay
162:Ratcliff Highway murders
917:Stern, Philip Van Doren
899:Hodgson, Shadworth H. "
345:Styled as a letter to "
290:Old Man of the Mountain
200:. In the same issue of
179:The Westmorland Gazette
168:throughout the series.
380:(a Thug scholar), the
176:When he was editor of
932:Critchley, T.A., and
706:Quincey, Thomas de. "
675:The Wordsworth Circle
654:The Last Days of Kant
652:Quincey, Thomas de. "
633:Quincey, Thomas de. "
573:The 1964 French film
207:Conversations-Lexikon
1056:Blackwood's Magazine
1010:Blackwood's Magazine
712:Blackwood's Magazine
658:Blackwood's Magazine
640:Blackwood's Magazine
620:Quincey, Thomas de.
319:The Newgate Calendar
267:Blackwood's Magazine
223:Blackwood's Magazine
202:Blackwood's Magazine
1041:The London Magazine
972:Essays in Criticism
841:The Greek Anthology
796:Westmorland Gazette
388:", and finally to "
341:Second Paper (1839)
23:
455:David Macbeth Moir
433:Ratcliff Highway.
386:Burkism and Harism
1030:Project Gutenberg
882:Nolte, Eugene A.
870:Thomas De Quincey
847:Book XI, No. 125.
836:Planudes, Maximus
748:William Heinemann
744:Alexander H. Japp
742:. Edited by
550:detective fiction
503:Under the Volcano
459:Shadworth Hodgson
410:Postscript (1854)
212:William Blackwood
154:Thomas De Quincey
138:
137:
83:Publication place
31:Thomas de Quincey
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1015:Internet Archive
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951:Burke, Thomas, "
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560:" by a century.
508:Vladimir Nabokov
482:G. K. Chesterton
358:Toad-in-the-hole
261:On Murder (1827)
214:rejected both.
113:Followed by
99:Preceded by
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958:The Bookman
934:P. D. James
708:The Avenger
536:Philip Kerr
394:blunderbuss
351:Blackwood's
219:short story
1081:Categories
1063:Postscript
583:References
246:Selections
237:James Hogg
172:Background
133:Wikisource
824:On Murder
811:On Murder
622:On Murder
552:, Poe's "
531:Hawksmoor
449:Reception
441:escape.
400:from the
347:Mr. North
335:catharsis
331:Aristotle
310:Leviathan
184:Macduff's
158:satirical
67:Blackwood
63:Publisher
522:Lud Heat
278:on lying
256:Synopsis
166:keystone
144:" are a
37:Language
1013:on the
697:, 1991.
534:), and
513:Despair
427:surtout
398:epigram
382:Sicarii
190:Macbeth
146:trilogy
107:"
45:Subject
40:English
903:", in
763:", in
484:, and
476:Legacy
150:essays
27:Author
1065:" in
1054:" in
1039:" in
1007:" in
367:Thugs
91:Pages
57:Essay
53:Genre
48:Crime
496:"),
374:glee
286:Cain
123:Text
1069:on
1043:at
1028:at
955:",
710:",
656:",
637:",
564:'s
544:).
524:),
516:),
506:),
313:.
233:.
193:".
152:by
148:of
131:at
1083::
936:.
919:.
838:.
746:.
693:.
665:^
609:^
591:^
492:("
422:.
372:A
292:.
94:14
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