De Quincey's literary criticism has attracted a good deal of attention in our century, having had the advantage of collection in the notable editions of Helen Darbyshire, John Jordan, and Frederick Burwick among others. Numerous studies of this aspect of De Quincey's writings have appeared, ranging from full-length surveys of his critical thought to specific articles on the more famous essays such as ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’. Yet De Quincey himself did little to establish his own reputation as a critic, scattering his critical wisdom into essays on a variety of topics, and then dispersing such essays as could be considered predominantly critical in a somewhat haphazard fashion through the volumes of the Selections Grave and Gay. It has been the work of the above-mentioned editors to establish his contributions to the field, so that his work is duly considered among that of the other Romantic critics, Coleridge and Wordsworth, Hazlitt and Lamb, Shelley and Peacock, and perhaps Hunt, who make up the list of standard reading in the area. Yet such a construction of De Quincey's critical position, however useful, may be seen to detach his criticism from some of the contexts which inform it. In the following chapter, the politicocritical figure of Coleridge will be related to essays such as ‘Style’, ‘Rhetoric’ and ‘Language’ (which I consider De Quincey's major critical statements) in order to achieve a politicized conception of De Quincey's critical status. Taking up from Chapter 4 regarding the politics of language, we shall now see how De Quincey's theory of literary style works as a political critique in addressing the essential terms of the debate on poetic diction contested by Coleridge and Wordsworth.

De Quincey's literary criticism has been regarded as a fascinating though wayward achievement, in which perhaps the sole constancy lies in his devotion to Wordsworth. In a footnote to his most enduring critical principle, the distinction between power and knowledge, De Quincey himself acknowledged that for this ‘as for most of the sound criticism on poetry, or any subject connected with it that I have ever met with, I must acknowledge my obligations to many years’ conversation with Mr Wordsworth’ (M, X, p. 48n.).