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Title: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (Dover Thrift Editions) by Thomas De Quincey ISBN: 0-486-28742-4 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Horrors of Addiction
Comment: Thomas De Quincey wrote this account of his life and his struggle with drug addiction to both educate on the evils of opium and also to share the dream trances that he experienced while in the throes of addiction. This version by Penguin presents De Quincey's original version from 1821 and then his revision notes from 1856. There is also a short section of comments that De Quincey made concerning his Confessions from 1821-1855. The introduction by Alethea Hayter is one of the best I've seen in a Penguin book, and it really helps in understanding Thomas De Quincey and his writing style.
The Confessions, in a nutshell, begin by recounting De Quincey's early life and the events that led him to begin taking opium. The rest of the tale deals with his problems with opium and his dreams that came from taking the drug. The original version isn't that long of a read, but his revision notes add considerable length, and for the most part weren't as interesting as the 1821 original.
De Quincey's prose is absolutely amazing. He is one of the most gifted writers I've had the pleasure to read (up to this date). Many times I felt as though I was lifted up by his words and carried directly into his world. I've yet to have as profound an experience with any other author. De Quincey can also be difficult. His grasp of the English language will leave many modern readers scratching their heads. Footnotes and notes by the editor help, but a dictionary will find heavy use during the reading of this book. So those with short attention spans, be forewarned. You won't survive this book. Also, De Quincey received a classical education. He makes heavy use of Greek names, places and other classical references. He even uses Greek words in the text (although notes provide translations). I can read Greek and have studied classical history, so I got most of his references and in jokes. This is one of the things that impressed me about De Quincey. He mentioned early on that he could speak classical Greek fluently. Anyone who has studied Greek realizes how difficult this is to do. Even Romans had trouble speaking Greek fluently, so much so that it is mentioned in various historical works when an emperor could do so. The fact that De Quincey can do this is a sign of his deep intellectual abilities. I can only imagine how prolific he might have been if he had not been saddled with an opiate addiction.
An amazing book and one I highly recommend to those who are prepared to read and understand it. For those looking for a justification for drug use, look elsewhere!
Rating: 4
Summary: A slice of the auld 19th
Comment: ...and not a Begbie to be found.
De Quincey's prose is frustrating - Classical and 19th Century literary allusions go by at a pace that slaps my 21st century brain into its ignorant place. Shelley, anonymous nobles, Milton, Spinoza, all pop in and out of focus. Words are slung into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, the end result being maddening to the young brain with but an inkling of classical education.
However, for someone who has done a fair amount of pharacological research and become familiar with the stigma that drugs entail, it is absolutely fascinating to read of a time when opium used like we use aspirin today, and likewise the reverence De Quincey has for it.
For the aspiring literary tragic, second-hand stories of Coleridge (fellow opium fiend, occasional friend and literary contemporary) and Wordsworth (all of the above, without the opium) are an intensely interesting perspective.
Not Naked Lunch, not fun, nor for everyone.
Rating: 4
Summary: Trainspotting -- Early 19th Century Style
Comment: I recently learned that Thomas De Quincey attended my school, although this is a fact that is not prominent in its promotional literature (having the distinction of being the alma mater of one of history's most famous drug addicts not being high on the list of items deemed likely to attract the attention of well-heeled parents seeking a school for their precocious ten-year olds). This is a drug memoir of sorts, but it is washed in a romantic aestheticism that distinguishes it from the familiar gritty and sordid morality plays of more recent times. De Quincy sometimes comes off as an erudite version of the charcher played by Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. Entertaining stuff, if a little dry in places.
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Title: Absinthe: History in a Bottle by Barnaby Conrad ISBN: 0811816508 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine, and Patent Medicines by Barbara Hodgson ISBN: 1552975401 Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Opium : A History by Martin Booth ISBN: 0312206674 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 12 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon by Barbara Hodgson ISBN: 081182411X Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Sorrows of Young Werther: And, Novella (Vintage Classics) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elizabeth Mayer, Louise Bogan, W. H. Auden ISBN: 0679729518 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 June, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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