Confessions of an English opium-eater and other writings

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is an account of the early life and opium addiction of Thomas De Quincey, in prose which is by turns witty, conversational, and nightmarish. `On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth` offers both a small masterpiece of Shakespearian interpretation and a provocative statement of De Quincey`s personal aesthetic of contrast and counterpoint.

Suspiria de Profundis blends autobiography and philosophical speculation into aseries of dazzling prose-poems which explore the mysteries of time, memory, and suffering. `The English Mail-Coach` develops a richly apocalyptic vision which sets nineteenth-century England`s political and imperial grandeur against the suffering and loss of innocence which it entails.

This selection presents De Quincey`s major works in their original uncut and unrevised versions, which in some cases have not been available for many years.