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Introduction to Opium. At the university he lived much to himself, and read extensively; and the habit of solitude which he cultivated increased natural diffidence. The result was that, after passing written examinations brilliantly, he so dreaded the orals that he ran away and hence received no degree. During these years, while on a visit to London, he first used opium, the practice to which he unquestionably owed not a little of his fame. His own minute record, however, of a not entirely successful struggle against opium would hardly lead one to desire fame at so great a cost.

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To the Lake District. After the Wordsworths left Dove Cottage, Grasmere, De Quincey occupied it for a number of years. Though Wordsworth was the chief attraction in the region for him, he found another in the person of Margaret Simpson, a Westmoreland farmer's daughter, whom he married in 1816.

Publication of the "Confessions."-The year 1821, when De Quincey removed to London, stands out prominently in his life. In that year there appeared in the London Magazine, in two instalments, The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater: Being an Extract from the Life of a Scholar: and De Quincey's career as a contributor to magazines was determined. Readers who had become used to new and striking things in both poetry and prose found in this work a yet greater surprise. The intimate self-revelation, together with the wonderful style which revealed new capacities in the language, made the Confessions eclipse in interest even the Essays of Elia appearing in the same magazine.

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pages of this book. Not only was he a voluminous writer; he wrote on a wide range of subjects, classified by Masson as

autobiography, biog-
raphies, historical es-
says, speculative and
theological essays, po-
litical economy and
politics, literary theory
and criticism, tales and

TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF
THE CONFESSIONS.

This edition was published anonymously.
Note that the author's name on title-page
is inserted in pencil.

romances.

Minor Writings. -
It cannot be said that
he was equally success-
ful in all fields. His
political and specula-
tive writings have
served
beyond "respectable
padding for maga-
zines." Some of his
historical essays, Joan
of Arc, for example,
are marred by the in-
trusion of jocular pas-
sages at most serious
moments, and by an oc-
casional lapse into con-
versational tone. His

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(New York Public Library.) criticism of Goethe, in which he asserts that the German poet's reputation will sink for several generations till it reaches its proper level, is a classic of misconception. One of his literary essays, however, On the Knocking at the

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in the contrasting of "the beautiful English face of the girl and "the sallow and bilious skin of the Malay;" in various descriptions of an opium-eater; and in accounts of tremendous opium "dreams." Despite his digressions, De Quincey shows also great constructive power; and the combination of this with the flow of poetical, "impassioned" language results in literary art of a high order.

NOVELISTS

In addition to reaching great heights in poetry and essay, the Romantic period is marked by high achievements in another field, the novel. Of the two chief novelists of the period we may say that each created a type of novel, and attained a preeminence in that type which has not yet been successfully disputed. Sir Walter Scott, the "Wizard of the North," is still, after a century of imitation, our foremost historical novelist; Miss Austen, in like manner, remains our foremost writer of the novel of social comedy.

SIR WALTER SCOTT, 1771-1832

One of the fullest, most varied, and most attractive lives to be found in the annals of literature is that of Sir Walter Scott. His literary life began, while he was engaged in the practice of law, with translations from the German; proceeded with a collection of ballads from the Border peasantry; continued with a series of romances in verse; with lives of Napoleon, Dryden, Swift, and the novelists; extensive editions of the works of Dryden and Swift; essays on a

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