WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD MARKS Once upon a time, opium (the main ingredient of heroin) was easily available over the chemist's counter. The secret of happiness, about which philosophers have disputed for so many ages, could be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat pocket: portable ecstasies could be corked up in a pint bottle. Paradise? So thought Thomas de Quincey, but he soon discovered that 'nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium'.

Set in the backdrop of England, it is an autobiographical novel by De Quincey. He gives an account of the times when he was addicted to opium and had hallucinations under its influence. The narrative details how he was left desolate during the time he was an addict and his recovery from the turmoil. Engrossing!

"Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey about his addiction to laudanum. It has interesting thoughts about the emotional and psychological factors that push people, especially teens, to try opium. The author also speaks about the pleasures of the drug and the horrors of physical and mental degradation.

'I took it: - and in an hour, oh! Heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest depths, of the inner spirit! what an apocalypse of the world within me!' Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) launched a fascination with drug use and abuse that has continued from his day to ours. In the Confessions De Quincey invents recreational drug taking, but he also details both the lurid nightmares that beset him in the depths of his addiction as well as his humiliatingly futile attempts to renounce the drug. Suspiria de Profundis centres on the deep afflictions of De Quincey's childhood, and examines the powerful and often paradoxical relationship between drugs and human creativity. In 'The English Mail-Coach', the tragedies of De Quincey's past are played out with horrifying repetitiveness against a backdrop of Britain as a Protestant and an imperial power. This edition presents De Quincey's finest essays in impassioned autobiography, together with three appendices that are highlighted by a wealth of manuscript material related to the three main texts. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

"I here present you, courteous reader, with the record of a remarkable period in my life: according to my application of it, I trust that it will prove not merely an interesting record, but in a considerable degree useful and instructive." So begins "The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater." Originally published in two parts in the "London Magazine" in 1821, it is a gripping account of one Englishman's addiction to opium. Thomas De Quincey details the effects of his opium use and in so doing warns the reader of the dangers and terrors of serious drug addiction.