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Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822) is an autobiographical novel, by Thomas de Quincey, about his laudanum (opium and alcohol) addiction and its effect on his life. First published in 1821 in the London Magazine, it was released as a novel in 1822, and again in 1856, in an edition revised by de Quincy.
Synopsis
The book follows the course of the author's experience with opium, from his first encounter in university to the time of his addiction later in life. Though originally published in 1821, the book was later released in another edition in which de Quincy filled in many of the names he had left blank, and added or changed other details that had been different in, or were missing altogether from, the original. One hypothesis offered in explanation of his belated candour is related to his admission of having fallen out with the "Lake Poets," namely Wordsworth and Coleridge, whom he had admired greatly but by whom he had been ostracized over personal matters.citation needed De Quincy himself, within the book's narrative, tells his readers of his reluctance to publically mention or criticise certain people by name who at the date of the first edition were still alive (or whose close relatives were), and further explains in the later version:
Yet again, in simple truth, now [...] it becomes possible, through changes worked by time, to tell the whole truth (and not, as in former editions, only a part of it)[....] This case [i.e., the story of his addiction], in common with many others, exemplifies to my mind the mere impossibility of making full and frank Confessions, whilst many of the persons concerned in the incidents are themselves surviving, or (which is worse still), if themselves dead and buried, are yet vicariously surviving in the persons of near and loving kinsmen. Rather than inflict mortifications upon people so circumstanced, any kindhearted man will choose to mutilate his narrative; will suppress facts, and will mystify explanations.[1]
The book was controversial particularly because open discussion of addiction and other "moral faults" was taboo before and during the socially conservative Victorian era. De Quincey gave one of the first literary accounts of such effects, in a time when the drug's negative side-effects were not well understood.citation needed
The autobiography is characterised by its vivid descriptions of uncontrollable urges and withdrawal-induced nightmares, which ranged from the euphoric to the disturbing. By the end of the book De Quincey relates his experience of having become unable to control his visions, which had become (to him) increasingly terrifying and indistinguishable from reality.
References
- ^ Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Three Sirens Press, New York, 1932, p. 53
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- This page was last modified on 3 August 2008, at 17:12.
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