English Mail-coach and Other Writings (Everyman's Library) - Hardcover

De Quincey, Thomas

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9780460006095: English Mail-coach and Other Writings (Everyman's Library)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0460006096 ISBN 13: 9780460006095

Publisher: Dutton Books, 1961

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The essay is divided into three sections: Part I, "The Glory of Motion," is devoted to a lavish description of the mail coach system then in use in England, and the sensations of riding on the outside upper seats of the coaches (in the author's often opium-tinged perceptions). Part II, "The Vision of Sudden Death," deals in great detail with a near-accident that occurred one night while De Quincey, intoxicated with opium, was riding on an outside seat of a mail coach. The driver fell asleep and the massive coach nearly collided with a gig bearing a young couple. Part III, "Dream Fugue, Founded on the Preceding Theme of Sudden Death," is devoted to De Quincey's opium dreams and reveries that elaborated on the elements of Parts I and II. Its literary quality and its unique nature have made The English Mail-Coach a central focus of De Quincey scholarship and criticism.

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