| override_editor

“ If an attempt be made to point to the most apparent literary relationship of the author of The City of Dreadful Night, one might venture the suggestion that James Thomson was a younger brother of De Quincey. If he has distinct affinity to any writer it is to the author of Suspiria de Profundis; if we look further afield, we might perhaps discern shadowy prototypes in Leopardi, Heine, and Baudelaire. But, after all, Thomson holds so unique a place as a poet that the effort at classification may well be dispensed with. ”

“ All his best work was produced between 1855 and 1875 ("The Doom of a City," 1857; " Our Ladies of Death," 1861; Weddah and Om-el Bonain: "The Naked Goddess," 1866-7; The City of Dreadful Night, 1870-74) . In his latter years Thomson too often sought refuge from his misery of mind and body in the Lethe of opium and alcohol. His mortal illness came upon him in the house of a poet friend ”