Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Hardcover

De Quincy, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1443733679 ISBN 13: 9781443733670

Publisher: Pomona Press, 2008

Synopsis

This vintage book comprises 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'; an autobiographical account of Thomas De Quincey's opium addiction and the effect that it had on his life. This text was the first major book that De Quincey published, and one that made him famous in a very short period of time. De Quincey's Confessions assumed an authoritative influence on the public, as well as scientific opinion of opium for several generations. It went through almost innumerable editions and revisions despite the fact that he was generally criticised for putting too much emphasis on the positive aspects of opium intoxication. Thomas Penson De Quincey (1785 – 1859) was an English essayist who was most renowned for writing this book. We are republishing this vintage work now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a new prefatory biography of the author.

About this title

Review:

"Joel Faflak's new edition of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater finally does justice to a work too often celebrated for its eccentricity rather than importance. Immersing this strange memoir fully in the historical milieu that produced it, Faflak proves De Quincey to be a keen critic of culture as well as an intrepid explorer of the mind. The Introduction sketches De Quincey's life, work, and significance with sagacity and wit. But the chief glory of this edition is its unflinching discussion of the history of opium as anodyne. Marshalling a wide array of primary material, Faflak reveals how eating opium—and writing about it—can be an activity rife with cultural implications and philosophical possibilities. De Quincey's Confessions and related writings come alive for today's readers in this edition." - Paul Youngquist, Pennsylvania State University

"This is by far the best paperback edition of De Quincey's Confessions ever to be published. Joel Faflak's comprehensive introduction demonstrates both why De Quincey is fascinatingly of our own moment, and how he speaks to the complex interplay between the literary avant-garde and imperialist geopolitics during the early nineteenth century. The text is thoroughly annotated and its abundant allusions explained. Especially useful are the appendices that locate the Confessions in literary, social, and political history, illuminating the role played by the opium trade in Britain's colonial mission, as well as how opium use was understood in the medical literature of the time. Faflak's expert editing gives us a De Quincey who is richer and stranger than ever before." - Margaret Russett, University of Southern California

From the Back Cover:

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater remains its author's most famous and frequently-read work and one of the period's central statements about both the power and terror of imagination. De Quincey describes the intense "pleasures" and harrowing "pains" of his opium use in lyrical and dramatic prose. A notorious success since its 1821 publication, the work has been an important influence on philosophers, theorists, and psychologists, as well as literary writers, of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But Confessions is only one part of a larger confessional project conceived by De Quincey over the course of his writing career. Gathered together in this edition, these texts provide a fascinating glimpse of early nineteenth-century British aesthetic, medical, psychological, political, philosophical, social, racial, national, and imperialist attitudes.

This edition includes the 1821 text of Confessions, its important sequel Suspiria de Profundis (1845), and its sequel, The English Mail-Coach (1849), as well as extensive appendices.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pomona Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1443733679
• ISBN 13: 9781443733670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 434