Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
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Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822) is an autobiographical novel by Thomas de Quincey first published in 1821 in the London Magazine, as a novel in 1822 and revised in 1856, about his laudanum (opium and alcohol) addiction and its effect on his life. The book follows the course of the author's experience with opium from his first encounter in college to the time of his malicious addiction later in life. Though originally published in 1821, de Quincey later released another edition in which he filled in many of the names he had left blank in the original. This is often attributed to his falling out with the Lake Poets, namely Wordsworth and Coleridge, whom he had admired greatly but ostracized him over personal matters.
The book was quite controversial, particularly because open discussion of addiction and other "moral faults" was taboo before and during the Victorian era. De Quincey gave one of the first literary accounts of the effects of the drug in a time where the drug's negative side-effects were not well understood.
De Quincey describes in detail the hallucinations he experienced under the influence of the drug, which range from the euphoric to the disturbing. By the end of the book De Quincey is unable to control his visions, which become increasingly real and terrifying.
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