Confessions of an English Opium Eater [electronic resource]

de Quincey, Thomas2013

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Summary

First published in 1821, Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater is a memorable book that has achieved phenomenal success and fame all around the world. Today, it is part and parcel of English literature and heritage. The author speaks about his own experience with the substance in what is conventionally considered to be the earliest literary and intellectual examination of the subject. The book starts with de Quincey speaking about his childhood and teen years that he spent mostly as a vagrant strolling through the streets of London. The rest of the work is divided into two fundamental parts that de Quincey entitles "The Pleasures of Opium" and "The Pains of Opium." As their respective titles suggest, the two parts present the positive and the negative sides of opium-eating according to the very subjective view of the author. The first part is related to the early period of de Quincey's addiction when he was completely fascinated and absorbed by the extraordinary effects of the drug and seduced by their incomparable sweetness. In the later phase, however, de Quincey becomes aware of the serious damages that opium causes to physical as well as to mental health.