Confessions of an English Opium-eater. 3rd edition

1823

Special Collections PR4534 C6 1823

London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey

Thomas de Quincey’s autobiographical account of his laudanum (opium mixed with alcohol) addiction was first published in serial form in the London Magazine during September and October 1821. It was published in book format the following year. His Confessions – dealing with the pleasures and pain of the drug – struck a chord with many 19th century readers and it won him enduring fame. In the 1850s he re-wrote this ‘record of a remarkable period in my life’, destroying the essence of the earlier versions. This is the 3rd edition of 1823, which does not suffer from the re-write.