num_pages: 263
description: In this remarkable autobiography, Thomas De Quincey hauntingly describes the surreal visions &amp; hallucinatory nocturnal wanderings he took thru London--&amp; the nightmares, despair &amp; paranoia to which he became prey--under the influence of the then-legal painkiller laudanum. Forging a link between artistic self-expression &amp; addiction, Confessions seamlessly weaves the effects of drugs &amp; the nature of dreams, memory &amp; imagination. First published in 1821, it paved the way for later generations of literary drug users, from Baudelaire to Burroughs, &amp; anticipated psychoanalysis with its insights into the unconscious.
language: English
title: Confessions of an English Opium-eater
titlecomplete: Confessions of an English Opium-eater (Popular Classics)
characters: Thomas De Quincey, Ann
genres: Classics, British Literature, Autobiography, History, Biography Memoir, Biography, Literature, 19th Century, Memoir, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 9709
places: United Kingdom, London, England, England
publisher: Penguin