Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Confessions of an English A first in the literary world, Thomas De Quincey's 1821 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater presents an autobiographical account highlighting addiction's reality and its disturbing effects on the mind. De Quincey recounts a life filled with terrifying visions and opium-fueled wandering through the streets of 19th-century London. He leads readers into his own nightmares and paranoia as his addiction intensifies. This mounting list of suffering effects comes from the then-legal use of the painkiller laudanum.

Seamlessly crossing between reality and dream, drug-fueled hallucination and paranoid delusion, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater challenges readers to experience a life that rides the line between the realms of consciousness and what lies beneath. It shows the power and pain of addiction as it delves into the reality of the mind and its endless intricacies.

This work has inspired countless generations of authors and helped to usher in the formal development and study of psychoanalysis. Presented in its original, traditional format, it bridges the gap between past and present to inform a new generation about the allures and horrors of opiate addiction.