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" On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts " is an essay by Thomas De Quincey first published in 1827 in Blackwood's Magazine . The essay is a fictional, satirical account of an address made to a gentleman's club concerning the aesthetic appreciation of murder. It focuses particularly on a series of murders allegedly committed in 1811 by John Williams in the neighborhood of Ratcliffe Highway , London . The essay was enthusiastically received ^{[1] : xxv} and led to numerous sequels, including "A Second Paper on Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts" in 1839 and a "Postscript" in 1854. These essays have exerted a strong influence on subsequent literary representations of crime and were lauded by such critics as G. K. Chesterton , Wyndham Lewis and George Orwell . ^{[1] : xxvi}

De Quincey also refers to the Williams murders in his " On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth ". ^{[ citation needed ]}

The 1964 French film On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts takes its name from the essay. ^{[ citation needed ]}

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On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts

• On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts at Project Gutenberg