I've been reading De Quincey's "The English Mail Coach", in a Spanish translation. It's one of the best things that I've ever read, not only from this author, but from all literature. There are some musical details about this writing that I want to discuss with my dear fellow-listers: a) What do you think about the title of the last part (Fugue-Dream on the subject of Sudden Death). Why "Fugue"?. De Quincey says that his prose becomes in that part "tumultuous, as a musical fugue", but I suspect that there are deeper analogies. (I have my own theory about it, but I want to read others first). b) It's just my impression, or the prose of De Quincey resembles in some way the musical discourse of Beethoven?,I mean: those violent changes of mood, the will of making enormous constructions based on (apparently) banal material, the obsessive way of carrying a subject --no matter how "little" it is-- to its last consequences... c) Does anyone know if the original English text is available on Internet? Pablo Massa [log in to unmask]