Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is considered one of the most important English prose writers of the early-19th century. This is the second part of a 21-volume set presenting De Quincey's work, also including previously unpublished material.

What, exactly, did tea, sugar, and opium mean in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain? Alimentary Orientalism reassesses the politics of Orientalist representation by examining the contentious debates surrounding these exotic, recently popularized, and literally consumable things. It suggests that the interwoven discourses sparked by these commodities transformed the period’s literary Orientalism and created surprisingly self-reflexive ways through which British writers encountered and imagined cultural otherness. Tracing exotic ingestion as a motif across a range of authors and genres, this book considers how, why, and whither writers used scenes of eating, drinking, and smoking to diagnose and interrogate their own solipsistic constructions of the Orient. As national and cultural boundaries became increasingly porous, such self-reflexive inquiries into the nature and role of otherness provided an unexpected avenue for British imperial subjectivity to emerge and coalesce.

Down to the Sunless Sea explores the time Coleridge spent in Gibraltar, Malta, Sicily and mainland Italy, where he had planned to recover his health, escape the clutches of opium and gain inspiration from the landscape; however, the reality would prove very different. After his short sojourn in Gibraltar, Coleridge arrived in Malta, where he became acquainted with the British Governor, Alexander Ball. He settled into Maltese life, initially taking on the role of acting Under-Secretary. Travelling to Sicily, Coleridge embraced the island's landscapes but was shaken to find the opium poppy was an important local crop. The Mediterranean would not prove the solution to his addiction. He visited the Consul, G. F. Leckie, and was invited to stay with him at a house on the site of Timoleon's Greek villa. The poet visited the antiquities of Syracuse and at the opera house encountered the soprano, Anna-Cecilia Bertozzi, nearly succumbing to her charms. Back in Malta, he was offered rooms in the Treasury building (now the Casino Maltese) and took up the post of Public Secretary. Legal pronouncements in Italian bear Coleridge's signature. Leaving behind these matters of state, he drifted through the Italian peninsula, engaging with a coterie of artistic ex-pats when in Rome. His listless, half-hearted, and financially embarrassed attempts at the Grand Tour included a narrow escape from French troops. Coleridge's Mediterranean sojourn impacted on his life and writing, not to mention his health, which saw a marked decline, leading to his final years in Highgate under the roof of a friendly doctor. Down to the Sunless Sea is a literary reflection on the fact that the sun-filled Mediterranean was not the tonic he had first imagined.