Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
Confessions of an Opium Eater - cover

Confessions of an Opium Eater

Thomas De Quincey

Publisher: BookRix

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum (opium and alcohol) addiction and its effect on his life. The Confessions was "the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost overnight..."

From its first appearance, the literary style of the Confessions attracted attention and comment. De Quincey was well-read in the English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and assimilated influences and models from Sir Thomas Browne and other writers. Arguably the most famous and often-quoted passage in the Confessions is the apostrophe to opium in the final paragraph of The Pleasures:
"Oh! just, subtle, and mighty opium! that to the hearts of poor and rich alike, for the wounds that will never heal, and for 'the pangs that tempt the spirit to rebel,' bringest an assuaging balm; eloquent opium! that with thy potent rhetoric stealest away the purposes of wrath; and to the guilty man, for one night givest back the hopes of his youth, and hands washed pure of blood...."
Available since: 12/19/2023.
Print length: 150 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Running from the Mirror - A Memoir - cover

    Running from the Mirror - A Memoir

    Howard Shulman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    As quickly as his face disappeared, so did his mother and father. 
 
 
 
Just three days after he was born, Howard Shulman contracted an infection that attacked his face, devouring his nose, lips, lower right eyelid, tear ducts, and palate. Abandoned at the hospital by his parents, he became a ward of New Jersey under the care of a state-employed surgeon who experimentally rebuilt his face. 
 
 
 
Running from the Mirror is a poignant story of one man's struggle to survive against staggering odds and create a meaningful life for himself. With unapologetic candor, Howard gives an unflinching account of growing up a bullied outcast, with no family to officially call his own. Relying on little more than street smarts and grit, he rises from dishwasher to successful entrepreneur. Along the way, a European actress, a schoolteacher, and a fiery Latina help transform his life. 
 
 
 
Filled with heart-wrenching suffering as well as soul-lifting joy, Running from the Mirror is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
    Show book
  • Life in the backwoods - cover

    Life in the backwoods

    Susanna Moodie

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    "Life in the Backwoods" is a memoir written by Susanna Moodie, a British author who immigrated to Upper Canada (now Ontario, Canada) in the early 19th century. The book provides a vivid and often challenging portrayal of Moodie's experiences as a settler in the Canadian wilderness. She recounts the hardships, struggles, and triumphs of pioneer life, offering insights into the daily routines, relationships, and encounters with nature that defined her existence in the backwoods.
    Show book
  • The Fight for Equity in the Bronx - Changing Lives and Transforming Communities One Scholar At a Time - cover

    The Fight for Equity in the...

    Elaine Ruiz Lopez

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A Vision Rising From the AshesDuring the "Decade of Fire," one Puerto Rican woman is determined to uplift her community and create change in the Bronx. Her alumni are a testimony to her vision that all can succeed.
    Show book
  • Men of 18 in 1918 - Memories of the Western Front in World War One - cover

    Men of 18 in 1918 - Memories of...

    Frederick James Hodges

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    An astounding account of one young infantryman's personal experience of the Western Front in the last year of World War One. 
 
 
 
Perfect for fans of Peter Hart, Max Hastings, and Barbara W. Tuchman. 
 
 
 
In the spring of 1918 German forces broke through Allied lines in a last-ditch attempt to overcome their enemies. To hold back this tide young, inexperienced men from France, Britain, the United States, Australia, and Canada were sent into war against battle-hardened and desperate German soldiers. 
 
 
 
What was it like to be an eighteen-year-old and sent to the frontlines in the First World War? 
 
 
 
Frederick James Hodges was one of these young men and his book, Men of 18 in 1918, provides insight into the ordeals of an ordinary soldier who left Britain as a teenager but returned as a man having witnessed the full horrors of war. 
 
 
 
Hodges charts his progress through the conflict from his short period of training to being thrown into defending Allied lines against the onslaught before being ordered, as part of Britain's prime assault troops, into a ninety-five-day non-stop attack which only ended with the armistice of November 1918.
    Show book
  • The Rebel Romanov - Julie of Saxe-Coburg the Empress Russia Never Had - cover

    The Rebel Romanov - Julie of...

    Helen Rappaport

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip—not to mention her brute of a husband. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so. 
 
 
 
Finally, Tsar Alexander granted her permission to leave in 1801, even though her husband was now heir to the throne. Rootless in Europe, Julie gave birth to two—possibly three—illegitimate children, all of whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Despite entreaties from Constantine to return and provide an heir, she refused, eventually finding love with her own married physician. 
 
 
 
At a time when many royal brides meekly submitted to disastrous marriages, Julie proved to be a woman ahead of her time, sacrificing her reputation and a life of luxury in exchange for the freedom to live as she wished. The Rebel Romanov is the inspiring tale of a bold woman who, until now, has been ignored by history.
    Show book
  • Waging Peace - One Soldier's Story of Putting Love First - cover

    Waging Peace - One Soldier's...

    Diana Oestreich, Danielle...

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Diana Oestreich, a combat medic in the Army National Guard, enlisted like both her parents before her. But when she was commanded to run over an Iraqi child to keep her convoy rolling and keep her battle buddies safe, she was confronted with a choice she never thought she'd have to make. 
 
 
 
Torn between God's call to love her enemy and her country's command to be willing to kill, Diana chose to wage peace in a place of war. For the remainder of her tour of duty, Diana sought to be a peacemaker—leading to an unlikely and beautiful friendship with an Iraqi family. A beautiful and gut-wrenching memoir, Waging Peace exposes the false divide between loving our country and living out our faith's call to love our enemies—whether we perceive our enemy as the neighbor with an opposing political viewpoint, the clerk wearing a head-covering, or the refugee from a war-torn country. By showing that us-versus-them is a false choice, this book will inspire each of us to choose love over fear.
    Show book