De Quincey's Collected Writings. (The Works). by DE QUINCEY, Thomas

London: A. & C. Black, 1896. 14 volume set, 7 inches tall. A good looking set in splendid Victorian half calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and delicate gilt tooling to the panels. Gilt top edges. Portrait and decorated borders to the title pages. Celebrated for his 1821 publication 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater', De Quincey was an influential English essayist. His greatest work was perhaps the first item of 'addiction literature'. 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater' had a great influence on many literary and artistic figures including Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Nikolai Gogol, Jorge Luis Borges and Hector Berlioz, who loosely based his Symphonie fantastique on De Quincey's work.