The Project Gutenberg eBook, De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars, by Thomas
De Quincey, Edited by William Edward Simonds

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Title: De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars

Author: Thomas De Quincey

Editor: William Edward Simonds

Release Date: June 8, 2005 [eBook #16026]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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TARTARS***

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DE QUINCEY'S REVOLT OF THE TARTARS

Edited with Introduction and Notes

by

WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS, PH.D.
Professor of the English Language and Literature in Knox College

Boston, U.S.A.
Ginn & Company, Publishers
The Athenaeum Press

1899

[Illustration: Thomas de Quincey.
(After a drawing by ARCHER.)]

"In addition to the general impression of his
diminutiveness and fragility, one was struck with the
peculiar beauty of his head and forehead, rising
disproportionately high over his small wrinkly visage
and gentle deep-set eyes."
DAVID MASSON.

PREFACE.

In editing an English classic for use in the secondary schools, there
is always opportunity for the expression of personal convictions and
personal taste; nevertheless, where one has predecessors in the task
of preparing such a text, it is difficult always, occasionally
impossible, to avoid treading on their heels. The present editor,
therefore, hastens to acknowledge his indebtedness to the various
school editions of the _Revolt of the Tartars_, already in existence.
The notes by Masson are so authoritative and so essential that their
quotation needs no comment. De Quincey's footnotes are retained in
their original form and appear embodied in the text. The other
annotations suggest the method which the editor would follow in
class-room work upon this essay.

The student's attention is called frequently to the _form_ of
expression; the discriminating use of epithets, the employment of
foreign phrases, the allusions to Milton and the Bible, the structure