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    Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
    Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
    Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
    Ebook147 pages4 hours

    Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

    By Thomas De Quincey

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    "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" is an autobiographical narrative by English author Thomas De Quincey. First published in The London Magazine in two parts in 1821, then as a book, with an appendix, in 1822.

    De Quincey’s rather majestic, classically learned and singular style inspires every page of his writing. His "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" guarantees him a place in this series as a writer whose life and writing were equally expressive of an unquenchable originality of thought and behaviour. The highly poetic and imaginative prose of the Confessions makes it one of the enduring stylistic masterpieces of English literature.

    The avowed purpose of the first version of "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" was to warn the reader of the dangers of opium, and it combined the interest of a journalistic exposé of a social evil, told from an addict’s point of view, with a somewhat contradictory and seductive picture of the subjective pleasures of drug addiction. The book begins with an autobiographical account of the author’s addiction. It then describes in effective detail the euphoric and highly symbolic reveries that he experienced under the drug’s influence and recounts the horrible nightmares that continued use of the drug eventually produced. 

    Athough De Quincey ends his narrative at a point at which he is drug-free, he remained an opium addict for the rest of his life. In 1856 he rewrote "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" and added descriptions of opium-inspired dreams.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherE-BOOKARAMA
    Release dateFeb 9, 2024
    ISBN9788834182680
    Author

    Thomas De Quincey

    Thomas De Quincey was born in Manchester in 1785. Highly intelligent but with a rebellious spirit, he was offered a place at Oxford University while still a student at Manchester Grammar School. But unwilling to complete his studies, he ran away and lived on the streets, first in Wales and then in London. Eventually he returned home and took up his place at Oxford, but quit before completing his degree. A friend of Coleridge and Wordsworth, he eventually settled in Grasmere in the Lake District and worked as a journalist. He first wrote about his opium experiences in essays for The London Magazine, and these were printed in book form in 1822. De Quincey died in 1859.

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      Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey

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