Recommendations from our site
“Published in 1821, Confessions of an English Opium Eater tells the tale of De Quincey’s unhappy childhood, his years spent destitute in Wales and London, and his growing dependency on opium. It’s a strange, flawed book, but for anyone curious to understand how the addiction memoir form came to exist, it’s essential—because it’s unquestionably the prototype. Although in 1821 there were no other books of quite this kind, it’s interesting to note how many later conventions of the addiction memoir are already here in embryo.” Read more...
Matt Rowland Hill, Memoirist
“In the Confessions of an English Opium Eater, you can’t always distinguish the dreaming passages from the more mundane accounts of his life. This is what makes the book so enticing” Read more...
Nick Groom, Literary Scholar
