Publisher's Synopsis
A true and nightmarish journey to the heart of opium addiction as told by an educated 19th century addict. The author Thomas De Quincey was an English essayist who studied at Worcester College, Oxford, where, we are told, "he came to be looked upon as a strange being who associated with no one." During this time he began to take opium. He became an acquaintance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, having already sought out Charles Lamb in London. His acquaintance with Wordsworth led to his settling in 1809 at Grasmere, in the Lake District. He died in Edinburgh and is buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard. His book on opium addiction is broken down into three main parts; The Pleasures of Opium, which discusses the early and largely positive phase of the author's experience with the drug. Introduction to the Pains of Opium, which delivers a second installment of autobiography, taking De Quincey from youth to maturity; and The Pains of Opium, which recounts the extreme of the author's opium experience insomnia, nightmares, frightening visions, and difficult physical symptoms.
