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On Wine and Hashish

by Charles Baudelaire, Andrew Brown (Translator), Margaret Drabble (Foreword by)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 640 ratings · 25 reviews

Initially composed for newspaper publication, and inspired by Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, Baudelaire’s musings on wine and hashish provide acute and fascinating psychological insight into the mind of the addict. On Wine and Hashish asserts the ambivalence of memory, urging a union of willpower and sensual pleasure as Baudelaire claims that wine and h...more

Paperback, 88 pages

Published September 1st 2002 by Hesperus Press (first published October 1st 1860)

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May 24, 2012 Louise Chapman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My first outing with Charles Baudelaire was several years ago when I stumbled upon his essays on Eugene Delacroix, which I found to be an absorbing insight into the bohemian world of nineteenth century Paris. Having already experienced his inimitable lexical draughtsmanship, I thought it necessary to peruse the archives further for Baudelaire’s lesser-known essays. I knew from reading Jean-Paul Sartre’s critical work on Baudelaire, that he had vainly battled an opium addiction, which lends its t...more My first outing with Charles Baudelaire was several years ago when I stumbled upon his essays on Eugene Delacroix, which I found to be an absorbing insight into the bohemian world of nineteenth century Paris. Having already experienced his inimitable lexical draughtsmanship, I thought it necessary to peruse the archives further for Baudelaire’s lesser-known essays. I knew from reading Jean-Paul Sartre’s critical work on Baudelaire, that he had vainly battled an opium addiction, which lends its theme to the decadently wrought ‘Artificial Paradises’, possibly the most arresting rhapsody of its kind.

Baudelaire’s most celebrated work is undoubtedly his controversial poetry anthology ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ (1857; The Flowers of Evil) which shows an uneasy witness to the decadence of modern Paris, and a futile vie for happiness without religion. Growing up in a wealthy suburb of Paris with only his mother, since his father had died in his early childhood, he showed immense promise as a writer, garnering immediate praise for his melancholic poetry. However, his undeniable taste for squalor kept him with the lowest harlots, and, fraught with syphilis, he was rendered incapable of settling down to regular work. He was eccentric by nature, ‘the white blackbird, who is spurned by all the black blackbirds,’ wrote Sartre in his critical appraisal of Baudelaire, ‘at least has the consolation of looking out of the corner of its eye at the whiteness of its wings’. He lived forty-six self-critical years, with a vulnerability that grew more puissant as his addiction progressively ensnared him.

Paris in the mid nineteenth century was a place buoyant with flâneurs, the late French romantics Delacroix and Gautier, the early realists Courbet and Champfleury, who, on the Venn diagram of their time, share a portion flushed with debauchery. In tandem with the flourish of artistic expression, came a seedy culture of drugs, drinking and decadence. Contraband drug shipments were ‘de rigueur’, giving rise to a new fashion of parties that exploited both Indian hashish and the analgesic opium, on which Baudelaire became dependent respectively.

‘Artificial Paradises’ is a commentary on the effects of hashish and opium intoxication, isolating Baudelaire’s ineffably torturous hallucinations, his unusually benevolent visions, and enhanced sensory awareness. This epic work can be read on many different levels. It could be a psychological supplement, a scientific prose-poem, a frantic, yet dateless, diary, a 160 page dream; Baudelaire’s narcotic reveries transcend genres, at times the work reads as fiction, but no, this disturbing account is absolutely real.
In this work, Baudelaire becomes a philosopher, a lover of wisdom; his experiences with opium and hashish (as part of a triumvirate which included wine) have given him an unyielding insight. Baudelaire’s (at times ambiguous) antipathy toward hashish, as well as his proclivity for wine, binds this chronicle of bourgeois drug use. His sumptuous prose gives glamour to his psychedelic trips, almost as a latent advertisement to join in; however, he is not a moment neglectful to mention the torment of his affliction. Baudelaire’s argument against hashish, bolstered by the observations of his contemporaries, Théophile Gautier and Thomas De Quincey, implies that the confluence of their apologies for consuming these narcotics stems from the need for ‘les paradis artificiels’ to stimulate creativity.

Against the fin-de-siècle backdrop, Baudelaire’s Romantic attitude towards wine consumption reveals a more precise addiction not so much to alcohol, but to the sense of community, which the act of drinking provides. Baudelaire, with his romantic image of wine, clings to the last vestiges of drink as a means to creating social bonds. His lasting axiom is the insistence that opium (quite unlike wine and hashish) intensifies existing intellectual prowess. Clearly, opium is not a means to intelligence, however it permits one to use their intellect differently, specifically to provoke fabulous dreams that transcend the banality of everyday life and which further enlighten the user.

Baudelaire’s style is inimitably exotic, his lexicon demands a lot from the ordinary mind – even for the erudite reader, I would suggest clutching onto a dictionary! Baudelaire’s work never ceases to teach, nor spiritually enlighten, but nor does it intimidate; despite his proficiency as a wordsmith, he remains gravely unpretentious. I would recommend this book to any discerning academic, those with an interest in abnormal psychology, or anybody who would merely like to add a grand number of new words to their vocabulary. What is particularly moving about this read, is that the central focus of his resplendent (nay jovial) writing was what brought him to his premature death in 1866, paralysed by opium-induced aphasia, and dying in a Paris nursing home. It seems that ‘Artificial Paradises’ is a construct, not a real Arcadia •

Louise R Chapman 2010(less)

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Mar 04, 2013 Bogdan Liviu rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The man who, after abandoning himself for a long time to opium or to hashish, has been able, weak as he has become by the habit of bondage, to find the energy necessary to shake off the chain, appears to me like an escaped prisoner. He inspires me with more admiration than does that prudent man who has never fallen, having always been careful to avoid the temptation. If you are one of these souls your innate love of form and colour will find from the beginning an immense banquet in the first de...more "The man who, after abandoning himself for a long time to opium or to hashish, has been able, weak as he has become by the habit of bondage, to find the energy necessary to shake off the chain, appears to me like an escaped prisoner. He inspires me with more admiration than does that prudent man who has never fallen, having always been careful to avoid the temptation. If you are one of these souls your innate love of form and colour will find from the beginning an immense banquet in the first development of your intoxication. Colours will take an unaccustomed energy and smite themselves within your brain with the intensity of triumph. Delicate, mediocre, or even bad as they may be, the paintings upon the ceilings will clothe themselves with a tremendous life. The coarsest papers which cover the walls of inns will open out like magnificent dioramas. Nymphs with dazzling flesh will look at you with great eyes deeper and more limpid than are the sky and sea. Characters of antiquity, draped in their priestly or soldierly costumes, will, by a single glance, exchange with you most solemn confidences. The snakiness of the lines is a definitely intelligible language where you read the sorrowing and the passion of their souls. Nevertheless a mysterious but only temporary state of the mind develops itself; the profoundness of life, hedged by its multiple problems, reveals itself entirely in the sight, however natural and trivial it may be, that one has under one's eyes; the first-come object becomes a speaking symbol. Fourier and Swedenborg, one with his analogies, the other with his correspondences, have incarnated themselves in all things vegetable and animal which fall under your glance, and instead of touching by voice they indoctrinate you by form and colour. The understanding of the allegory takes within you proportions unknown to yourself. We shall note in passing that allegory, that so spiritual type of art, which the clumsiness of its painters has accustomed us to despise, but which is realy one of the most primitive and natural forms of poetry, regains its divine right in the intelligence which is enlightened by intoxication. Then the hashish spreads itself over all life; as it were, the magic varnish. It colours it with solemn hues and lights up all its profundity; jagged landscapes, fugitive horizons, perspectives of towns whitened by the corpse-like lividity of storm or illumined by the gathered ardours of the sunset; abysses of space, allegorical of the abyss of time; the dance, the gesture or the speech of the actors, should you be in a theatre; the first-come phrase if your eyes fall upon a book; in a word, all things; the universality of beings stands up before you with a new glory unsuspected until then. The grammar, the dry grammar itself, becomes something like a book of "barbarous names of evocation." The words rise up again, clothed with flesh and bone; the noun, in its solid majesty; the adjective's transparent robe which clothes and colours it with a shining web; and the verb, archangel of motion which sets swinging the phrase. Music, that other language dear to the idle or the profound souls who seek repose by varying their work, speaks to you of yourself, and recites to you the poem of your life; it incarnates in you, and you swoon away in it. It speaks your passion, not only in a vague, ill-defined manner, as it does in your careless evenings at the opera, but in a substantial and positive manner, each movement of the rhythm marking a movement understood of your soul, each note transforming itself into Word, and the whole poem entering into your brain like a dictionary endowed with life."(less)

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Feb 15, 2013 Marcio Scheibler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Adquiri esse livro para conhecer o autor Charles Baudelaire, que eu já tinha lido sobre sua carreira algumas vezes. PARAÍSOS ARTIFICIAIS trata da descrição dos efeitos do ópio, do haxixe e do vinho no organismo humano. O texto tem um acento filosófico e, por que não dizer, poético. É uma leitura totalmente diferente, pois foge do padrão de romances, aventuras e outros tantos gêneros que circulam por aí.

Pra quem curte histórias agitadas vai achar esse livro muito monótono, pois não há diálogos. O...more

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Aug 02, 2012 sabisteb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hörspiele-einzelne, classics

"Der gesunde Verstand sagt uns, daß die Dinge der Erde nur sehr wenig Realität besitzen und daß es Wirklichkeit einzig in den Träumen gibt. Um das natürliche wie das künstliche Glück zu verdauen, braucht es zunächst einmal den Mut, es hinunterzuschlucken..."

Der französische Schriststeller Charles-Pierre Baudelaire ist wohl einer der größten französischen Lyriker und einer der wichtigsten Wegbereiter der europäischen literarischen Moderne. Eigentlich kennt man ihn vor allem wegen seiner Gedichte....more "Der gesunde Verstand sagt uns, daß die Dinge der Erde nur sehr wenig Realität besitzen und daß es Wirklichkeit einzig in den Träumen gibt. Um das natürliche wie das künstliche Glück zu verdauen, braucht es zunächst einmal den Mut, es hinunterzuschlucken..."

Der französische Schriststeller Charles-Pierre Baudelaire ist wohl einer der größten französischen Lyriker und einer der wichtigsten Wegbereiter der europäischen literarischen Moderne. Eigentlich kennt man ihn vor allem wegen seiner Gedichte. Kaum einer würde erwarten, dass dieser Dichter 1860 einen Assay "Les paradis artificiels, opium et haschisch" Dt. "Die künstlichen Paradiese" veröffentlichte, ein Plädoyer für den verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit Haschisch und anderen Drogen. Der Text behandelt neben dem Wunsch des Menschen nach Ausnahmezuständen, die zeitlose Neugier auf Rausch und Drogen, das Nachdenken über Fragen von Bewusstseinsveränderung auch die Frage, welche Dosierung die Richtige ist, wie sich die Rauschzustände äußern und was man dabei fühlt. Er stützte sich dabei auf eigene Erfahrungen mit diesen Drogen, die damals, neben Absinth, bei den verfemten Dichtern hoch im Kurs standen. Politisch korrekt auch gleich am Schluss noch die Warnung über potentielle psychische Abhängigkeit. Ein durchaus moderner Sachtext über Gebrauch, Anwenden und Risiken des Haschisch. Aber ein wirklich ungewöhnlicher Stoff für ein Hörspiel.
150 Jahre später produzierte Kai Grehn für RB/HR/RBB/SR 2011 dieses 80 minütige Hörspiel aus diesem Assay. Ein ungewöhnliches, experimentelles Hörspiel, das 2012 mit dem deutschen Hörbuchpreis in der Kategorie "besonderer Wagemut" ausgezeichnet wurde. Kai Grehn lud dabei 12 Bands ein, sich von Baudelaire Gedicht "Berauschet euch" inspirieren zu lassen. Die 12 mitwirkenden Bands (alva noto, Anne Clark, Gevorg Dabaghyan, Matt Elliott, The Original Kocani Orkestar, Mariahilff, Nouvelle Vague, Helmut Oehring, Sandow, Tarwater, Tuxedomoon, Ulver) schrieben inspiriert durch Pierre Baudelaire Gedicht "Berauschet Euch" einige richtige Ohrwürmer.
Das Hörspiel wartet mit drei hervorragenden Sprechern auf:
Alexander Fehling - bekannt durch Rollen in Inglourious Basterds und Goethe!
Jule Böwe - Theater- und Filmschauspielerin der Berliner Schaubühne.
Jeanne Moreau – die grand Dame des französischen Kinos.

Schon die Katogorie "besonderer Wagemut", in dem das Hörspiel ausgezeichnet wurde, zeigt, was der Hörer zu erwarten hat. Dieses Hörspiel ist keine seichte Unterhaltung, auf dieses Hörspiel muss man sich einlassen und man sollte in der richtigen Stimmung für diesen Stoff sein. Wenn alle Randbedingungen stimmen, wenn alles vorbereitet ist, man Ruhe und Muße hat, wenn alles kurzum so ist, wie Baudelaire es für einen Haschischtrip empfiehlt, dann kann man dieses Hörspiel genießen und wird feststellen, dass ein Assay neben Ernsten auch durchaus lustige Seiten hat, und dass vor allem dieser Assay, obwohl bereits 150 Jahre alt, erstaunlich aktuell und modern ist. Die Musik ist sehr gut auf die jeweils behandelten Themen abgestimmt und verschafft dem Hörer immer kleine Verschnaufpausen, wenn der Text anfängt anstrengend zu werden.
Hörspielkunst auf hohem Niveau!

(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Camille rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The beginning of this book might be a little discouraging since it describes and lists the aspects and effects of haschish and opium, but then, Baudelaire focuses solely on opium and uses De Quincey's autobiography as an exemple. De Quincey's life is fascinating, not only as an opium-eater, and so are Baudelaire's analyses, which are always relevant and beautifully said.
As always, Baudelaire manages to be poetic without even meaning to, and he has a deep understanding of the English language.
If...more

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May 24, 2012 AJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, 2010, do-not-own

On Wine and Hashish is a short, lyrical glimpse into two drugs but mostly explores the effects of hashish. I liked this book so much better than Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-eater & Other Writings, probably because Baudelaire does such a great job capturing the effects of the altered mind.

I don't quite agree with Baudelaire's proclamations that artificially stimulating the consciousness somehow nullifies the authenticity of the user and hir activities. I also disagree...more

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May 24, 2012 Noriyuko 'Pat' rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lovely pairing of two French Romantics who were absolutely committed to getting the most out of their intoxicants. Especially remarkable is the way Baudelaire and Gautier emphasize (as the pretty good introduction explains) the way hashish elicits a synaesthetic response...music is 'tasted', colors are 'heard', etc. The writing itself remarkably like Beatles' 'I am the Walrus' etc. This book is best for celebrating drugs as a positive, always interesting, and creative substance that can develo...more

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May 24, 2012 Fostergrants rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: poetic winos

Shelves: poetry

this was my introduction to Baudelaire. having been to paris three times i don't know why it never occured to me to pick this up. i loved his thoughts on the virtues of wine. the 2nd half of the book was his poem to hashish which is funny to me because it seemed to be more disjointed than the wine section...i wonder why? hahahaha. he did seem to have a love/hate relationship with the hashish part. this is a quick read and like i said earlier, has served as an appetite whetter for more of his wri...more

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May 16, 2013 Suusje rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anderstalige-literatuur

Een bundel met Baudelaire's 50 prozagedichten.

Niet altijd even toegankelijk door referenties aan zijn bekende en minder bekende tijdsgenoten, maar prachtige, meestal enigszins verhalende hoofdstukjes die een bijzonder en realistisch beeld van het leven in de negentiende eeuw oproepen.

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May 24, 2012 Agnese rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essay

Interesting and captivating in style, but not so exciting and intense as the experiences of the opium eater, the book's hero. But while artificial paradises -that can easily turn upside down into artificial hells- can allow one to re-live with an exalted sensitivity past experiences and don't reveal in fact anything new, natural paradises are ground of exploration and discovery. So only natural paradises can reveal more beauty beyond the known beauty, and become an experience of growth and real...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Ramón Vázquez-gómez rated it 5 of 5 stars

included in artificial paradises.... poetic prose on wine and hash

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May 24, 2012 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People

Hesperus Press out of the UK has put together a nice little edition of two essays by Baudelaire. Lovely black and white cover. Hesperus puts out editions of shorter works by old, dead, authors. Check out their website. In part one Baudelaire discusses wine, its merits for achieving transcendence. In part two (the way longer part, by the way) Baudy lengthily discusses the effects of hashish, badly arguing against its merits relative to wine. Nothing really new here about either wine or hash, but...more

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May 24, 2012 Annabelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Je ne comprends pas pourquoi l'homme rationnel et spirituel se sert de moyens artificiels pour arriver a la beatitude poetique, puisque l'enthousiasme et la volonte suffisent pour l'elever a une existance supra-naturelle. Les grands poetes, les philosophes, les prophetes sont des etres qui par le pur et libre exercice de la volonte, parviennent a un etat ou ils sont a la fois cause et effet, sujet et objet, magnetiseur et somnambule.- Je pense exactemenet comme lui."

maybe i'm trying to convince...more

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May 24, 2012 Rubi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-own-books, favourites-5-stars, to-re-read

Fantástico. Me maravilla pensar cómo alguien puede ser tan valiente de publicar algo así y hacer que todo el mundo se sienta identificado de una manera u otra... Muy grande, Baudelaire. Muchas reflexiones, grandes frases, grandes conocimientos se esconden en este libro. No hay razón para no leerlo y dejarse arropar por la sabiduría.

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May 24, 2012 Tosh rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a fellow wine-o, I really appreciate Baudelaire's little study on the subject matter of the grape and the type of visions one can get from it. And for those who need some sort of guide lines of what is good - you can't go wrong with Hesperus Classics Press out of London.

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May 24, 2012 Jonah Dumile rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed his descriptions although they seemed rather bold at times. The same text is repeated with slight change throughout. It read a lot like a more intelligent refer madness that was pro-alcohol.

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Mar 28, 2012 Ritinha rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qDaS...

Ah e tal que o ópio e o haxixe são maus mas o vinho é super bom.

Haja pachorra! --'

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May 24, 2012 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

A new appreciation for wine, a different perspective on hashish. The poetry of his experience is difficult to deny.

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May 24, 2012 Valentina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are interested in the subject this is upscale druggie litterature.

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May 24, 2012 Tosh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On a drug trip with Charles Baudelaire. What can be better?

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May 24, 2012 Max added it

Shelves: drugs, fiction

Charming story, many to much 19th century.

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May 24, 2012 Suzanne Hill rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely love this

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May 24, 2012 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booze, france

Wine>hashish. I agree.

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May 24, 2012 Carlos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read Portuguese translation.

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May 24, 2012 Brian marked it as to-read

try to find somewhere.

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Jun 19, 2013 Onur Güngör rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 19, 2013 Forest Campos rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jun 19, 2013 Victoria marked it as to-read

Jun 17, 2013 William Gortowski marked it as to-read

Jun 16, 2013 404 added it · review of another edition

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About Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet, translator, and literary and art critic whose reputation rests primarily on Les Fleurs du mal; (1857; The Flowers of Evil) which was perhaps the most important and influential poetry collection published in Europe in the 19th century. Similarly, his Petits poèmes en prose (1868; "Little Prose Poems") was the most successful and innovative early ex...more

More about Charles Baudelaire...

Books by Charles Baudelaire

Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides)

Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems

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“This life is a hospital where every patient is possessed with the desire to change beds; one man would like to suffer in front of the stove, and another believes that he would recover his health beside the window.” — 4 people liked it

“Un hombre que no bebe más que agua tiene un secreto que esconder a sus semejantes.” — 1 person liked it

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