De Quincey, Thomas

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English writer. His works include Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) and the essays ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’ (1825) and ‘On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’ (in three parts, 1827, 1839, and 1854). He was a friend of the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and his work had a powerful influence on Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe, among others.

De Quincey is outstanding as a stylist, consciously imitating the mannered prose of the 17th century. In the essays ‘Suspiria de Profundis’ (1845) and ‘The English Mail Coach’ (1849), he began a psychological study of dreaming, examining how childhood experiences can through symbols in dreams affect the dreamer's personality. In this way he gave lasting expression to the fleeting pictures of his usually macabre dreams, and it could be said that he explored the subconscious before it was formally discovered.

Modelled on the French tricolour, the vertical stripes represent liberty and revolution. The almost square proportions of the flag are unusual. Effective date: 23 January 1831. >>