Thomas de Quincey - the connoisseur and translator of Immanuel Kant

This article deals with one of the aspects of literary activity of English essayist-romanticist Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) - the translations of Immanuel Kant's philosophical works. This aspect has previously been unknown for Russian literary criticism. Within the scope of this investigation some problems will be regarded: the problem of text choice for translation, the reception of Kant's philosophy heritage by T. De Quincey, the issues of translation activity influence on English writer's own works. This article proves that De Quincey's translation activity was not only the way to introduce the compositions of German philosopher to English readers of XIXth century, but also the form of De Quincey's reception of Kant. The author shows that the issues raised by Kant were then discussed in De Quincey's essays and memoirs, and De Quincey gave us his own original explanation of problems raised in the works of Kant.