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Confessions of an English Opium Eater

Thomas de Quincey,

Barry Milligan (Editor)

3.31 · Rating details · 8,186 ratings · 616 reviews

Confessions is a remarkable account of the pleasures and pains of worshipping at the 'Church of Opium'. Thomas De Quincey consumed daily large quantities of laudanum (at the time a legal painkiller), and this autobiography of addiction hauntingly describes his surreal visions and hallucinatory nocturnal wanderings through London, along with the nightmares, despair and para ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published March 27th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 1821)

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May 02, 2013 Fionnuala added it

Shelves: proust-and-related, metamorphosis, non-fiction, one-book-leads-to-another, review-may-contain-comic-content

The Opium Eaters, a comedy, based on the sleeping habits of Thomas de Quincey and Marcel Proust.

Characters:
Marcel Proust
Thomas de Quincey

The curtain goes up on a bedroom scene. Two of the walls are cork-lined, the third is a bare stone wall roughly coated with Roman cement. In the angle of the two cork-lined walls is a narrow wrought-iron bedstead covered with an eiderdown quilt and beside it, a night-table on which lie books, papers, and a little brass bell.
Against the stone wall there is a br ...more

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Nov 17, 2007 Paul Bryant rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir

If there is reincarnation I want them to put a hold on mine until humanity has invented drugs that don't have a down-side to them. No tiresome side effects, like early death. And they'll be cheap. And you'll still be able to fire up your jet pack and get to the office and do your job and impress your team leader. And no skin blemishes. O drugs of the future, I salute you and your friendliness and complete lack of ill effects!

Because you see opium, for one, as Thomas de Quincey demonstrates in ...more

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Oct 28, 2011 William2 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19-ce, uk, nonfiction, memoir, autobiography

3.5 stars. One can see why Confessions was such a favorite among the drug-addled youngsters of the 60s and 70s. The title is catchy but--surprise!--its not primarily a book about drug experiences. Only the last 20 or so pages plumb that. It's about suffering, homelessness, and penury. There were passages that reminded me of 1993's Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets by Lars Eighner, a wonderfully written book about homelessness.

The class system of Britain, thank God ...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Tyler rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Nobody

Shelves: 19th-century, biography-memoir

If I published under my own name a book that was this bad, I’d fall through the floor for shame. With fewer than 20 pages drearily sketching the use of opium, what’s left is a mind-numbing autobiography of atrocious prose in service to pathological vanity. How does this writer get away with it?

The structure is a disaster. A footnote on one page tells about the family name Quincey; that footnote refers readers to an appendix; that appendix has yet more footnotes, all devoted to the name. Other f If I published under my own name a book that was this bad, I’d fall through the floor for shame. With fewer than 20 pages drearily sketching the use of opium, what’s left is a mind-numbing autobiography of atrocious prose in service to pathological vanity. How does this writer get away with it?

The structure is a disaster. A footnote on one page tells about the family name Quincey; that footnote refers readers to an appendix; that appendix has yet more footnotes, all devoted to the name. Other footnotes take up over a page, and I couldn’t turn even three pages without running into a footnote of some length.

Similar discontinuity sends readers down many blind alleys. The chapter titles have nothing to do with the content, and the text in places is indexed with numbers which even break down into Roman numerals – all to make inconsequential points.

De Quincey mounts a defense in the first pages against the poet Coleridge. A fellow opium addict, Coleridge had apparently attacked De Quincey’s use of opium as being improper. This lively dustup gives the book some historical cachet, but it also reminds me of two alcoholics arguing over who’s drunk. After that, the opaque perspective yields no clue what the author was actually like.

Thickly overwritten prose flummoxes readers. The author brandishes verbose, circuitous sentences studded with Latin and Greek, the latter in its own alphabet. So esoteric is his writing that at times I simply had no idea what the author was getting at; at other times I had no idea what he just said.

More grating still is the silly affectation. The author in places addresses people and things in the second person using thee and thou, as if his puerile personal cares call for poetic license. In other places, his prodigious recollections pass off ersatz sentiment as something authentic. The tedious, self-absorbed content ultimately goes on to chronicle every aching hangnail this crazy fool ever had.

De Quincey’s main goal seems to be to twist language into a pretzel. It’s a matter of indifference to him whether he actually communicates anything to his readers. I consider as a result that readers should treat this book with a similar indifference. ...more

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Sep 26, 2017 Beverly rated it did not like it

Tedious, he uses a word "viz." about 10,000 times. Obscure and rambling, but it was written a long, long time ago.

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Mar 06, 2011 Alex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: rth-lifetime, 2011, reading-through-history

"First published in 1821, it paved the way for later generations of literary drug users, from Baudelaire to Burroughs." Whee!

While this is maybe not indispensable, it's also not more than 100 pages, so it gets five stars based on its ratio of awesomeness vs. time commitment. And it is pretty awesome. De Quincey is funny and weird and literate, and the roots of all kinds of drug stories - from those quoted above to Trainspotting and, oh, A Million Little Pieces - are clearly visible.

In one of tho ...more

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Jul 26, 2014 Leonard Gaya rated it liked it · review of another edition

De Quincey’s account on opium consumption is perhaps one of the earliest books on drugs addiction, before Charles Baudelaire’s Paradis artificiels. It seems that De Quincey started taking laudanum to relieve a stomach condition. The drug did not affect him negatively at first; on the contrary, it improved the acuteness of his senses and uplifted his spirits. “Oh!, says he, subtle and mighty opium! that bringest an assuaging balm!” And that's how he got involved in an opium-eating habit for more ...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, british-isles, autobiography-memoir

Thomas de Quincey started taking opium in the form of laudanum - conveniently available over the counter from all good chemists in early 19th century Britain - as pain relief. At no time was he taking his opium directly either by smoking or even eating, the title is indicative of his interest in finding the right phrase or most striking turn of words rather than the most accurate description. The downside of this search of his for the best turn of phrase is that in the second edition of his book ...more

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May 21, 2019 Jacob Overmark rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, read-owned, reviewed, classics

The boy speaks Greek …

I am not overly impressed – underwhelmed may indeed be the word – by this romantic tale of the orphaned but highly intelligent boy who fell on hard times.

It is a typical piece of Confessional Writing – though it also bares a certain lack of self-awareness paired with some megalomania.
And yes, opium-eating is a nasty habit and you can invent all kind of excuses for it if you like but still it is an addiction.

TdQ is often mentioned as a forefather and source of inspiration f ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Diane in Australia rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-autobiography

I finally finished this! I have started reading it several times, and just couldn't get into it. But today I finished it! Hooray! As you can tell, I did not like it.

One example of a very long rambling sentence: "I do not often weep: for not only do my thoughts on subjects connected with the chief interests of man daily, nay hourly, descend a thousand fathoms “too deep for tears;” not only does the sternness of my habits of thought present an antagonism to the feelings which prompt tears—wanting ...more

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Nov 23, 2012 J.G. Keely rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk-and-ireland, non-fiction, reviewed, read-more-than-once

While researching the use of opium for my own (fictional) writings into the subject, I came across this fascinating article about a fellow whose habit of collecting paraphernalia led him to become both the leading expert on them and an addict. The interview led me to the work of Dr. H.H. Kane, and Kane's analysis led me back to de Quincey, with whom I had some prior familiarity due to my literary studies.

De Quincey's writing style is precise and exacting, but he does not have that flair for stor While researching the use of opium for my own (fictional) writings into the subject, I came across this fascinating article about a fellow whose habit of collecting paraphernalia led him to become both the leading expert on them and an addict. The interview led me to the work of Dr. H.H. Kane, and Kane's analysis led me back to de Quincey, with whom I had some prior familiarity due to my literary studies.

De Quincey's writing style is precise and exacting, but he does not have that flair for storytelling which marks a fascinating diarist. Indeed, many of the most intriguing parts of his tale are those he declined to go into in great detail, and throughout one can see his struggles not so much in what he has written on the page, but in what he cannot bring himself to say. He comes to the cusp of his own suffering again and again, but to cross that threshold is to relive his greatest shame and disappointment, so he often skirts it.

No doubt this is why Dr. Kane accuses de Quincey of presenting all the beneficial sides of the drug's use, and ignoring the dangers. Yet I found myself constantly thankful that I was not in de Quincey's position, for his constant and unabated suffering seemed clear enough to me.

Indeed, when he spoke of being unable to complete his work (the promised third part of his Confessions never arrived), of the weeks or months passing by without his being perceptibly closer to completing all of the great tasks and projects he had set before himself--one does not have to be a taker of laudanum to sympathize, as being an artist of any stripe is quite enough to understand that eternal struggle.

But though some of his narrative is less than vivid, most interesting are his descriptions of opioid dreams, which visions were so influential to fantastical authors like Gogol and Lovecraft. Indeed, his vision of the 'impossible castles of the clouds' are recognizable in the writings of numerous mythos authors, who were so obsessed with the realm of dreams, especially when it bled into quotidian life. ...more

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Apr 07, 2018 Shyam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature

I sometimes seem to have lived for 70 or 100 years in one night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millennium passed in that time, or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any human experience. —Confessions

. . . I do not believe that any man, having once tasted the divine luxuries of opium, will afterwards descend to the gross and mortal enjoyments of alcohol. —Confessions
__________
Rarely do things perish from my memory that are worth remembering. Rubbish dies instant

...more

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Nov 24, 2019 Quirkyreader rated it liked it · review of another edition

I was hoping to give this book a higher rating, but it is hard to review a book where most of it came from a haze of drugs taking memories.

The opioid epidemic has been with us for centuries and De Quincey was one of the first people to write about his struggles with the drug.

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Feb 15, 2014 Andrea rated it liked it

I was disappointed I confess, though I don't know why I had high expectations given I have always found people on drugs profoundly boring—though I note that usually they find themselves extremely interesting. De Quincy writes 'I have, for the general benefit of the world, innoculated myself as it were, with the poinson of 8000 drops of laudanum per day (just for the same reason as a French surgeon inoculated himself lately with cancer...)'

What struck me most was privilege, even in his poverty a I was disappointed I confess, though I don't know why I had high expectations given I have always found people on drugs profoundly boring—though I note that usually they find themselves extremely interesting. De Quincy writes 'I have, for the general benefit of the world, innoculated myself as it were, with the poinson of 8000 drops of laudanum per day (just for the same reason as a French surgeon inoculated himself lately with cancer...)'

What struck me most was privilege, even in his poverty after running away as a teenager. After all, he heads to Eton, where he will always be at home, to get Lord so-and-so to co-sign a loan against his expected fortune from the Jews. I was sad but not surprised to find such a stereotypical view of jews as existing simply to lend money to wealthy but under-age men. A window of empathy into the lives of the poor and oppressed emerged, but he only opened the curtain a little, hardly even looked properly through it. There is disappointingly little here about London and walking its streets, which is what I expected to find given all I had read.

What I hadn't expected to find was a crazy reflection of imperial angst and racism. He's in the remote mountains in a cottage when a 'Malay' comes to the door and doesn't speak English. He contrasts 'the beautiful English face of the girl and its exquisite fairness, together with her erect and independant attitude ... with the sallow and bilious skin of the Malay...his small, fierce, restless eyes, thin lips, slavish gestures and adorations'. They can't communicate, but apparently all the man wants is somewhere to rest before he goes on his way. As a parting gift, de Quincey offers him a chunk of opium, which the man proceeds to eat entire--'the quantity was enough to kill three dragoons and their horses, and I felt some alarm for the poor creature; but what could be done?' Nothing apparently, he sends him out in the night, and is anxious for his life the next few nights but upon hearing no reports of the dead body turning up, his mind is relieved.

Except it's not. After the years of happily enjoying his regular opium habit, it eventually spirals down into pain and terrible dreams/hallucinations. These are regularly frequented by what he calls 'Oriental' dreams. He writes 'The Malay has been a fearful enemy for months. I have been every night, through his means, transported into Asiatic scenes...The causes of my horror lie deep, and some of them must be common to others. Southern Asia in general is the seat of awful images and associations.' Holy crap I thought, the inscrutable asian 'other' that he might well have murdered comes back to his dreams, takes him to the very places his opium comes from -- though that isn't thought through or even mentioned. I suppose this is before the Opium wars and Britain's great Opium-dealing adventure overseas, it prefigures it in a way. And unlike the Heart of Darkness fear of 'primitive' man (though he brings up that up as well in relation to 'barbarous' Africa), it is instead fear and trembling before an older greater culture--'the ancient, monumental, cruel and elaborate religions...The mere antiquity of Asiatic things, of their institutions, histories, modes of faith, &c., is so impressive, that to me teh vast age of the race and name overpowers the sense of youth in the individual'.

There is so much to think about there, I hope to come back to it at some time, though surely this must have been written about. The only other interesting thing, funny really, was the statement on political economists of the day: 'I saw that these were generally the very dregs and rinsings of the human intellect; and that any man of sound head...might take up the whole academy of modern economists, and throttle them between heaven and earth with his finger and thumb, or bray their fungus-headss to powder with a lady's fan'. Which I love, though I am not sure exactly how that insult works...
...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Capsguy rated it really liked it

Shelves: british-irish

Sure, the lead-up to the actual confessions of taking opium and the resulting consequences was longer than the apparent subject matter of the book, but who cares? I found this to be an insightful text into the dangers of at the time a widely used drug.

This also apparently paved the way for many other drug substance abuse memoirs, of which the only one I can think of that I have read were Junky by Burroughs.

Confessions is written in a clear, concise manner and with the interesting subject matte ...more

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Jul 12, 2017 Tony rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I read this as de Quincey appeared as a character in Murder as a Fine Art.

Wow can you imagine what he would have been like if he had been at his zenith in the late 60’s? I was reminded at times of Fat Freddy in The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, who one night decided to write a book. He took ‘a little something’ to aid the imagination and another ‘little something’ for creativity etc, etc…

When his progress was checked on the following morning his pages just read ‘and then and then and then and ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 Justin rated it liked it

Where do I even begin with this book? Did it enlighten me at times? Yes. Did I want to huck it against a wall or chuck it out my window? Yes given it was a paperback and not on my tablet. I read this for research purposes for a future work of mine and well it seems I didn't get much out of it and may have to look elsewhere. The author Thomas de Quincey explains his trials and experiments with opium. He also explains his dull hopeless life for the first half of the book. Let me state that he knew Where do I even begin with this book? Did it enlighten me at times? Yes. Did I want to huck it against a wall or chuck it out my window? Yes given it was a paperback and not on my tablet. I read this for research purposes for a future work of mine and well it seems I didn't get much out of it and may have to look elsewhere. The author Thomas de Quincey explains his trials and experiments with opium. He also explains his dull hopeless life for the first half of the book. Let me state that he knew how to start a sentence but he sure as hell did not know how to finish one. I have never in my life ever read a book with so many run-on, rambling sentences. He goes into detail with comma after comma sometimes two to three pages before ending the sentence. The saddest part is I don't think he was on opium when he wrote those parts! Aside from that it was sometimes unbearable to read because of the big words and things he talks about. Perhaps if one was on opium as they read they could better understand. I was confused throughout most of the book but I did understand a good amount as well. What I took from the beginning was that he was in college and ended up being an apprentice to a local businessman and he ended up living in a shitty ass room with a little orphan girl(I am being dead serious). No worries he didn't do anything bad but he cared for her without really ever getting to know her or ask why she was there.

By this time I am just dying to read about his opium habits but no I must wait a bit longer. So he then talks of how he met this prostitute( I think that's what she was), woman of the night, however you want to say it. He talks about how he got with her in such a way that I had to read it four times till finally coming the conclusion that he had sex with her cause he never says it directly. He never asks her name or where she's from but they talk and learn from one another and have some occasional fun, pretty much what we call friends with benefits today..without knowing the persons name. He had this appreciation for her pretty much because his life was soooo eventful and fulfilling. So when he finally talks about opium instead of talking about himself he explains how high class townspeople in England do it in secret and though he cannot name names he assures the reader that they do do it and he knows not if they abuse it. He then goes on to explain that he's had bad stomach pains which is the reason he decides to do opium(uh huh cause that's what you take for stomach pains, I guess there was no Pepto back in the 1800's). Well as he takes his opium he assures the reader he is no abuser of the drug and cannot be compared to others cause he knows not how the take or use the drug. He also assures the reader it is okay for him because he knows what he's doing, he repeats this over and over throughout the chapter and rest of the book perhaps because he assumes the reader thinks he's a abuser( I didn't think of him an abuser of opium but an abuser of comma's and semi-colons).

The book never takes off or goes anywhere except in circles. I did enjoy some moments though so I can't say this book was a total loss. In two chapters he explains the pains of opium however the only thing painful was trying to understand what he was talking about. What I took from it was whenever he got high on a Tuesday or Saturday he would go to an opera(next time your high perhaps try this). He said he had a whole new found appreciation for opera when high, of course he did. So, I noticed that he did very little in telling of the pains of opium in the chapters and in fact does a better job in the footnotes. Why did I continue to read this till the end? To be honest I kept hoping it got better which it did little of but again had moments. Also I got so far into it that it seemed pointless in abandoning it half way through so I kept chugging on so to speak, paining through it. There was one page that I felt was what I was looking for and had been waiting for since I started reading it. Near the end he describes what he either felt or feels like when on opium claiming he was an Egyptian god, with other gods, animals like monkey's and cockatoos staring at him, how he was in a Asian forest and Vishnu hated him and how he was buried in a coffin for a thousand years. I read this page at thought, YES! Finally some trippiness!

I sat down and read the final 80 pages or so of this book because I needed to finish it and I felt I was reading it just to finish it after a while. Why 3 stars? As I said, it did have good moments where when I understood it I felt it was solid but for the most part it was quite exhausting. Would I read this again? Absolutely not. Would I recommend it to others? If you want to learn 5% of opium pains, 20% of a boring English man's life and 75% of utter confusing enlightening madness then by all means dip right in. I'm not sure if I took anything useful that I needed for this book but I did learn one thing, some people do not know how to finish sentences. ...more

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Aug 25, 2014 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 19th-century-lit, biography, literature, essays

Years ago, I had started Thomas de Quincey's magnificent book, but laid it aside for some inexplicable reason. Now I see that this volume -- Confessions of an English Opium Eater -- is infinitely worth reading through to the end, and even returning to its glories at a later date.

De Quincey's opium habit led to his heterodox approach to life, which alternated between manic passages of glory to massive funereal threnodies, of which the following sentence from "The English Mail Coach" is but a sam ...more

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May 15, 2020 Mattia Ravasi rated it really liked it

Video review

Feverish account of absolute poverty, unrepentant disdain, toxic addiction.
Still manages to turn its nose up at the French. ...more

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Oct 24, 2009 El rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: put-it-in-your-journal, 19th-centurylit-early

This is an interesting and candid look at a man in the early 19th-century (originally published 1821) who has a deep love and affection for opium. Opium, though not illegal at the time (and in fact actually highly accessible to the general public), is addictive and was often the drug of choice for many writers and poets of the time. De Quincey suffered from a chronic stomach malady for which he felt the laudanum improved. The majority of his family died off from tuberculosis, but De Quincey made ...more

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Feb 15, 2008 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: unexpectedly-terrific, read-in-2008

After circling this book for years, I finally read it today. And it knocked my socks off. DeQuincey writes like an angel. Even in the less structured passages (his descriptions of his opium dreams are somewhat disjointed) his writing is so astonishingly brilliant that the reader is swept along.

In her introduction to the Penguin Classic edition, Alethea Hayter describes DeQuincey's prose as "highly charged, close-textured, every word and syllable choice enriched with music and imagery", "prose ( ...more

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Aug 23, 2016 Jon Nakapalau rated it really liked it

Shelves: psychology, autobiography

Thomas de Quincey writes his confessions and takes us into his confidence as he struggles to overcome his addiction. What impressed me the most was his honesty; he seems to see the addicted Thomas from a detached perspective that is insightful yet never 'preachy'. I still think this book could help addicted individuals today.

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Feb 10, 2012 E. G. rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography-memoir-letters, non-fiction, 4-star, own, uk-ireland

Acknowledgements
Chronology
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts

--Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater
--'Suspiria De Profundis'
--'The English Mail-Coach'

Appendix: Opium in the Nineteenth Century
Glossary
Notes

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Aug 18, 2014 Lisa Marie Gabriel rated it did not like it

Shelves: biography

My reluctance to accord this classic work with greater stellar accreditation is, I admit dear reader, due to my own failure to engage with its subject matter and style; it exemplifies an antiquated and at times pompous style with which I have no means of identifying and in which I honestly declare I have little investment. I would rather read Shakespeare for light entertainment, as his works are far easier to understand and to follow and at least have the virtue of being great stories. So, my si My reluctance to accord this classic work with greater stellar accreditation is, I admit dear reader, due to my own failure to engage with its subject matter and style; it exemplifies an antiquated and at times pompous style with which I have no means of identifying and in which I honestly declare I have little investment. I would rather read Shakespeare for light entertainment, as his works are far easier to understand and to follow and at least have the virtue of being great stories. So, my single star indicates merely that I personally had a profound dislike for the style of this book and is not a mark of quality or lack thereof.

Gentle reader, for such you be, behold here with sympathy, or indeed with empathy if such be a more accurate reflection of the desire to intellectualise; for so we must when faced with the tenebrous meanderings of an eternally teenage soul caught up in thses most humbling and shameful reminiscences during his seventh and most productive lustrum; indeed in remembrance of the many great misfortunes of a penniless existence wandering the byways of the Welsh mountains as a means of avoidance of his cruel and merciless guardians who, believing his intellect to be less than the genius he extolled of himself; until rescued and by means of a rich flagon of fortified liquid, the product of inexpert but practised vinification, by an unfortunate who walked the streets of London; then losing her benificent guidance forever in seeking the help of a Jew who required proof of his gentlemanly status apropos a loan, would not permit his earlier enrolment into University.

Here seek ye in vain, O gentle and patient reader the detailed and nefarious account of opium eating amongst the tedium of intellectual exercise, this being required in generous measure to complete the task before you without great tribulation, febrile mental exertion and multiple pandiculations; though nonmalificent in its intent, the great profusion of Greek alphabet and complexities of clause and construction may find you wanting in education.

This is not a book for the thrill seeker, or those in search of an easy read. De Quincey’s run on sentences, endless clauses and rambling style is not likely to strike a chord with the modern reader but fans of late 18th and early 19th century discourse may find it more to their liking. (Indeed many find it wonderful which is how I came to the misfortune of buying a copy so very many years ago). I finished the 1821 version and found the final 20 or so pages of this long, long essay were most in keeping with the title.

It is difficult to feel sympathy with the author whose own words and actions border on idiocy. Through his own arrogance and impatience, the result of an inflated ego due to natural proficiency in Greek that surpassed that of his tutors, he is the architect of his own downfall and yet Confessions asks us to sympathise and understand the “misfortunes” that led him to try opium. He is genuinely gifted in Greek translation and yet not once does he have the wit to seek work in London as a translator (work that was much in demand then) in order to feed and house himself. I have yet to brave the additions made in the 1856 version which feature in my paperback version as multiple addenda although I did dabble in the footnotes. I am glad I eventually read the Confessions. My failure to stay awake through it has been a source of infinite frustration since my first attempt at reading this book at age 17. Job done, now I can rest easy.
...more

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Jun 01, 2016 George rated it liked it

Shelves: britain-england, audible-library, read-in-2016

"Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" written in 1821 by Thomas De Quincey is a short, yet interesting account of the author's addiction to opium. Even though it was written 200 years ago, it is still relevant today. The first half of the book provides some autobiographical material and the second half describes his opium use. Although De Quincey is overly wordy in places, and the account meanders at times, I still think his humanity shines through the wordy text.

He discusses how his use of ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Sheri rated it liked it

Shelves: poverty-class-issues, addiction

As has been noted by others, this is more of an autobiographical tale than a discussion of drugs. Certainly the title does not say "confessions about eating opium", but instead are "confessions of an english opium eater" which means (of course) that the confessions can be about anything as long as the confessor has eaten opium at least once.

Quincey (as self reported) drinks (not eats) opium on a pretty regular basis for an extended period of time and claims to have kicked the habit prior to writ ...more

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Feb 23, 2017 Richard Newton rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir-or-biography, thinking-about-life

An odd little book, which if you know nothing about in advance probably won't fit with your expectations given the title. There are sections on opium and its effects on the author, but large chunks of the book mention it hardly at all.

The book is structured in 3 parts. The first two of which are seemingly unconnected, but which the author claims to bring together in the third. This is at best partially achieved. In these sections there is a rough chronological series of events, and a lot of rand ...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Rebecca rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-classics

In my opinion this book is falsely named. It should be called "My boring life which involved eating opium but even that wasn't worth telling". There are perhaps a handful of pages devoted to opium and the rest tell of his 'great misfortunes' (not that great because he enjoyed them somewhat) and allow De Quincy to go off on the most absurd tangents such as the history of the sizes of teaspoons.

His writing style is heavily academic and even a person with a generally extensive vocabulary will at s ...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Yair Ben-Zvi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Intolerably tough to read but a force worth going through. De Quincy was a xenophobe, drug addict, racist, imperialist, etc etc. But his writing is, hyperbole aside, incredible. He digresses, stops and starts tangents, and sometimes (actually often) ends stories with absolutely no resolution. Like post-modern even before modernism. Not easy but definitely great reading.

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Sep 02, 2012 Nathan "N.R." Gaddis marked it as i-want-money

Shelves: nineteen-centuries

"The Addicted Life of Thomas De Quincey"
by Colin Dickey
Lapham's Quarterly, 30 March 2013

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/round... ...more

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About Thomas de Quincey

Thomas de Quincey

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Thomas de Quincey was an English author and intellectual, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821).
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_d... ...more

Books by Thomas de Quincey

On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts

Suspira de Profundis, Being a Sequel to the Confessions of an English Opium-eater (Works, Vol 16)

Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets

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“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.” — 175 likes

“here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.” — 44 likes

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