Confessions of An English Opium-Eater with Illustrations by Willy Pogany [Opium Eater]

De Quincey, Thomas

Published by Collins' Press, London & Glasgow, 1935

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Description:

First edition thus; early printing w/Willy Pogany illustrations. No date; circa 1935. Includes original preface from the year 1821 and the 1856 prefatory notice. Fine maroon buckram [cloth] boards, gilt spine titles w/ornamentation, moderate shelf wear, rub, bump. Pages very good; few small red pen marks. Several decorative chapter and illustration plates w/the uniquely magical and miasmic imagery of Willy Pogany. Dark maroon smooth coated endpapers. Bind good; hinges intact. Attractive, conveniently sized, near very good antiquarian example. An autobiographical masterpiece, and likely the first literary memoir of an addict. Engrossing account of the pleasures and pains of worshipping at the 'Church of Opium'. Thomas De Quincey consumed daily large quantities of laudanum (at the time a legal painkiller), and this story of addiction hauntingly describes his surreal visions and hallucinatory nocturnal wanderings through London, along with the nightmares, despair and paranoia to which he became prey. The result is a work in which the effects of drugs and the nature of dreams, memory and imagination are seamlessly interwoven, describing in intimate detail the mind-altering pleasures and pains unique to opium. De Quincey forged a link between self-expression and addiction, paving the way for later generations of literary addicts from Baudelaire to James Frey, and anticipating psychoanalysis with its insights into the subconscious. Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) studied at Oxford, failing to take his degree but discovering opium. He later met Coleridge, Southey and the Wordsworths. From 1828 until his death he lived in Edinburgh and made his living from journalism. Also, includes ten-page appendix by De Quincey. 356 pages. Insured post. Size: 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 020093

Bibliographic Details

Title: Confessions of An English Opium-Eater with ...
Publisher: Collins' Press, London & Glasgow
Publication Date: 1935
Binding: Hard Cover
Illustrator: Pogany, Willy
Condition: Good
Edition: First Edition.