Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
- SIGNED
- London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1822
London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1822. Full Description:
[DE QUINCEY, Thomas]. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1822.
First edition of De Quincey’s masterpiece. Twelvemo (6 5/16 x 3 13/16 inches; 160 x 97 mm). [iii]-vi, 206 pp. Bound without the final leaf of advertisements (L4) and the half-title. Extra-illustrated with two plates including engraved portrait, and a plate of a bust of DeQuincy, as well as a folding plate of a letter by De Quincy [in facsimile ?].
Beautifully bound by P. Ruban in late nineteenth-century brown morocco. Boards ruled in gilt. Spine decoratively tooled in compartments, and lettered in gilt. Board edges double-ruled in gilt. Gilt dentelles and morocco doublure with morocco floral design of a poppy in green and red onlay. Floral silk free endpapers. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Slight offsetting from plates. Outer joints neatly repaired. Overall very good.
“De Quincey’s study of his own opium addiction and its psychological effects traces how childhood and youthful experiences are transformed, under the influence of opium, into symbolical and revealing dreams. The central experience for subsequent dream-formations was his childhood loss of his sister, duplicated by the disappearance of the 15-year-old prostitute Ann, who befriended him during his months of homeless near-starvation in London. The euphoric reveries of the early stages of his addiction and the appalling nightmares of the later stages are described in sonorous and haunting prose, and the work, first appearing in the London Magazine in 1821, conferred instant literary fame on De Quincey, whose first book it was. In 1856 he greatly extended the Confessions for a collected edition of his works, but thereby blunted its effect” (The Oxford Companion to English Literature).
“This is the first edition of the first part of the book; the complete text first appeared in Boston in 1850 and in London in 1856” (Tinker).
Ashley Library II, p. 37. Sterling 229. Tinker 817.
HBS 69477.
$2,650.
[DE QUINCEY, Thomas]. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1822.
First edition of De Quincey’s masterpiece. Twelvemo (6 5/16 x 3 13/16 inches; 160 x 97 mm). [iii]-vi, 206 pp. Bound without the final leaf of advertisements (L4) and the half-title. Extra-illustrated with two plates including engraved portrait, and a plate of a bust of DeQuincy, as well as a folding plate of a letter by De Quincy [in facsimile ?].
Beautifully bound by P. Ruban in late nineteenth-century brown morocco. Boards ruled in gilt. Spine decoratively tooled in compartments, and lettered in gilt. Board edges double-ruled in gilt. Gilt dentelles and morocco doublure with morocco floral design of a poppy in green and red onlay. Floral silk free endpapers. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Slight offsetting from plates. Outer joints neatly repaired. Overall very good.
“De Quincey’s study of his own opium addiction and its psychological effects traces how childhood and youthful experiences are transformed, under the influence of opium, into symbolical and revealing dreams. The central experience for subsequent dream-formations was his childhood loss of his sister, duplicated by the disappearance of the 15-year-old prostitute Ann, who befriended him during his months of homeless near-starvation in London. The euphoric reveries of the early stages of his addiction and the appalling nightmares of the later stages are described in sonorous and haunting prose, and the work, first appearing in the London Magazine in 1821, conferred instant literary fame on De Quincey, whose first book it was. In 1856 he greatly extended the Confessions for a collected edition of his works, but thereby blunted its effect” (The Oxford Companion to English Literature).
“This is the first edition of the first part of the book; the complete text first appeared in Boston in 1850 and in London in 1856” (Tinker).
Ashley Library II, p. 37. Sterling 229. Tinker 817.
HBS 69477.
$2,650.