Reviews

On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas De Quincey

laurenjpegler's review

3.0

Okay, I just re-read this and had to bump my original one star rating up to a three. I definitely think this is a better on the second read and when you don't skim it.

Essentially, de Quincey takes a satirical view on how murder has been considered aesthetically pleasing in art (both how it is approached by writers - mainly philosophers - and how it is depicted in paintings) over the ages. What I really enjoyed about this was the humour - de Quincey is very funny when he wants to be. It's like blunt humour, and it made me chuckle quite a bit, which is nice when you consider the morbid nature of the essay.

Actually quite decent - I think I'll give his essays a chance!

imafraidofwoolf's review

dark funny reflective medium-paced

3.0

h_motionless's review

reflective slow-paced

1.5

One of those books where the topic itself is far more interesting than the book’s contents. De Quincey had interesting ideas, but failed to communicate them in an entertaining way. The style of presenting this as fiction was fun to start with, but descended into boring drivel.

nao_e_catarina's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

2.5

sarasofraz's review

2.0

It was a bit funny in the beginning but in the end it just got annoying with all the latin quotes and whatever.

sofipinho's review

funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

obscuredbyclouds's review

1.0

Well, humorous stories are always going to have a difficult time with me because most times I just dont find them funny. Really didn't get the point of this book...

nidiadedia's review

dark funny

3.0

need_more_meta's review

dark funny informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

mhuberty03's review

challenging medium-paced

3.25

The language in this book was super hard to read. I bet reading Shakespeare would even be easier. The book was interesting though as a lecturer just talked about great murders throughout history. I don’t know if I gleaned much from the book, but it was still interesting.