Confessions Of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings — Thomas de Quincey

Confessions of an English Opium Eater 1821 is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey about his laudanum opium and alcohol addiction and its effect on his life The Confessions was the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost overnight First published anonymously in September and October 1821 in the London Magazine the Confessions was released in book form in 1822 and again in 1856 in an edition revised by De Quincey

Thomas De Quinceys Confessions of an English Opium Eater 1821 launched a fascination with drug use and abuse that has continued from his day to ours In the Confessions De Quincey invents recreational drug taking but he also details both the lurid nightmares that beset him in the depths of his addiction as well as his humiliatingly futile attempts to renounce the drug Suspiria de Profundis centres on the deep afflictions of De Quinceys childhood and examines the powerful and often paradoxical relationship between drugs and human creativity In The English Mail Coach the tragedies of De Quinceys past are played out with horrifying repetitiveness against a backdrop of Britain as a Protestant and an imperial power This edition presents De Quinceys finest essays in impassioned autobiography together with three appendices that are highlighted by a wealth of manuscript material related to the three main texts