Opium - Hardcover

Hodgson, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0285636278 ISBN 13: 9780285636279

Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

An exquisitely illustrated and fascinating short history of opium culture.

"Opium" will open people's eyes to the bizarre and shocking history of a drug that began with use in religious ceremonies, then raised high hopes as a cure for many ills in Victorian times and was regarded as an embodiment of the romantic East, leading to its horrific consequences today.

In her meticulously researched text, Barbara Hodgson delves into the nature and history of opium, focusing on its exotic incarnation as a drug to be smoked. As well as examining its factual history—in memoirs, science, and travel books—she explores portrayals of opium use in fiction and film.

The book captures the heady essence of the opium era and is packed with illustrations that trace the changing image of the drug: artifacts and apparatus of opium use; illustrations of opium dens in Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, Toulon, and Canton; portraits of drug-taking writers; lurid covers of nineteenth-century illustrated newspapers and twentieth-century pulp-fiction drug titles; and stills from drug-related films.

Text and images in this beautifully designed book perfectly evoke the insiduous allure and devastating dangers of opium smoking.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Hodgson is a book designer and writer and a founding partner at Byzantium Books in Vancouver, B.C. She is the author of "No Place for a Lady" among other nonfiction books. She has also published two novels, "The Sensualist" and "The Tattooed Map".

Review

''Farewell to smiles and laughter, farewell to peace of mind! Farewell to hope and to tranquil dreams, and the blessed consolations of sleep!'' So Thomas De Quincey wrote in ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' in 1822. He was among the first of many writers, artists and musicians who found themselves addicted to opium. In ''Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon,'' Barbara Hodgson chronicles the effects the narcotic had, both positive and negative, on many of the artistic lights of the 19th century. Who also analyzes the drug's effect on the general population of China, India, Britain, France and the United States. In fact, the economies of both Britain and France were so dependant on the opium trade that when China tried to stop it, the European powers made war in 1839 and again in 1856. Hodgson, the author and designer of two illustrated novels, ''The Sensualist'' and the ''The Tattooed Map,'' intersperses photographs and woodcuts of addicts in opium dens throughout the book. She also includes movie stills and reproductions of the covers from magazines and books to highlight the strange fascination opium has exerted on our culture. Of special note is the cover a 1958 editions of Claude Farrere's 1904 novel ''Black Opium''; it features a naked, voluptuous blonde rising out of the smoke of an opium pipe. The images is both absurd and sad, for opium use decreases the sex drive. But then again, as Hodgson notes in her insightful book, the pull of the drug is anything but logical. ----New York Times Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0285636278
• ISBN 13: 9780285636279
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152