ON MURDER CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS

Thomas de Quincey (17851859). Thomas de Quinceys Confessions and an English OpiumEater and Other Writings is available in Penguin Classics.People begin to see that something more goes to the composition of a fine murder than two blockheads to kill and be killed a knife a purse and a dark lane...In this provocative and blackly funny essay Thomas de Quincey considers murder in a purely aesthetic light and explains how practically every philosopher over the past two hundred years has been murdered insomuch that if a man calls himself a philosopher and never had his life attempted rest assured there is nothing in him.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguins 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan from Tierra del Fuego to 16thcentury California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage: poems epic and intimate: essays satirical and inspirational: and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Thomas de Quincey (17851859). Thomas de Quinceys Confessions and an English OpiumEater and Other Writings is available in Penguin Classics.