This article draws attention to the fact that Thomas De Quincey’s essay 'The Last Days of Immanuel Kan' is for the most part a translation of a German work by Kant’s disciple and friend E. A. Ch. Wasianski. The author then attempts to define the work of De Quincey’s French translators. In this case, are they translating a translation? Then De Quincey’s attitude to Wasianski’s text and his principles as a translator are examined in detail through a series of specific examples, trying to account for the English writer’s occasional departures from Wasianski’s text. It thus becomes clear that Wasianski was an unremarkable writer and that De Quincey’s essay offers a considerably enriched, improved, and poeticized version of the German pamphlet. De Quincey appears as a creative translator, transforming banal prose into great literature.