The Last War of the Romantics: De Quincey, Macaulay, the First Chinese Opium War

Kitson, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8947-4859 (2018) The Last War of the Romantics: De Quincey, Macaulay, the First Chinese Opium War. The Wordsworth Circle, 49 (3). ISSN 0043-8006

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Abstract

This essay discusses the public debate surrounding the First Opium War with China of 1840-42. It features the contributions, to that debate of Thomas Babington Macaulay, then secretary for war in the Melbourne government, and Thomas De Quincey, the famous "opium eater". The essay argues that Macaulay and De Quincey are engaged in a form of literary competition that surfaces in this debate of the 1840s. Central to the debate is the commodity of opium and its paradoxical representation and presence in Britain, Bengal and China. The essay argues that this debate is a product of the circumstances on the 1840s and that De Quincey's essay should not be taken as representative of romantic attitudes to China.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	romantic,china,opium dequincey,macaulay,opium war
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Research Group
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2018 10:33
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2022 19:35
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/68299
DOI:	10.1086/twc4903148

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