Confessioni di un mangiatore di oppio

Di Thomas De Quincey

QUESTO LIBRO E' A LAYOUT FISSO

“Questo ritrovato lo si poteva definire una panacea per tutti i mali, il segreto della felicità, sul quale i filosofi avevano per secoli disquisito: se non che tanta letizia la si poteva acquisire per pochi soldi e custodire nel taschino del panciotto; la si poteva sigillare in una bottiglia e la pace interiore confezionarla e spedirla in barili con un corriere postale”.

Con l’opera Confessioni di un oppiomane, scritta nel 1821, Thomas De Quincey ottenne fama e successo, divenendo fonte d’ispirazione per scrittori come Baudelaire ed Edgar Allan Poe.

L’oppio, e gli effetti che esso produce, è l’assoluto protagonista, idolo e nel contempo demone della narrazione. Dopo un iniziale periodo di benessere ed estasi, l’abuso di questa droga divenne per l’autore causa di spaventosi incubi notturni, che ne compromisero ulteriormente il già precario stato di salute. Solo la minaccia della morte incombente, gli permetterà di emergere dalla spirale della dipendenza.

L’affascinante testimonianza di un uomo, che intende sfatare le false convinzioni condivise in materia, divulgando gioie e dolori provocati dall’assunzione dell’oppio, senza mai cadere in considerazioni di stampo moralistico.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), scrittore e giornalista inglese, pubblicò, oltre alle Confessioni di un oppiomane, Klosterheim, Suspiria de Profundis, Storie di un visionario e Le avventure di una monaca vestita da uomo.

• Lingua: Italiano
• Editore: Edizioni Clandestine
• Data di uscita: 4 dic 2015
• ISBN: 9788890162947

Thomas De Quincey

Thomas De Quincey was born in Manchester in 1785. Highly intelligent but with a rebellious spirit, he was offered a place at Oxford University while still a student at Manchester Grammar School. But unwilling to complete his studies, he ran away and lived on the streets, first in Wales and then in London. Eventually he returned home and took up his place at Oxford, but quit before completing his degree. A friend of Coleridge and Wordsworth, he eventually settled in Grasmere in the Lake District and worked as a journalist. He first wrote about his opium experiences in essays for The London Magazine, and these were printed in book form in 1822. De Quincey died in 1859.

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Recensioni su Confessioni di un mangiatore di oppio

[william345 · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

3.5 stars. One can see why Confessions was such a favorite among the drug-addled youngsters of the 60s and 70s. The title is catchy but--surprise!--its not primarily a book about drug experiences, only the last 20 or so pages plumb that. It's about suffering, homelessness, and penury. There were passages that reminded me of 1993's Travels With Lizbeth by Lars Eighner, a wonderfully written book about homelessness.

The class system of Britain, thank God it's dying, systemically prevented true eleemosynary activity. Anyone deemed to be a victim of their own excess was not considered worthy of care. As de Quincey states: The stream of London charity flows in a channel which, though deep and mighty, is yet noiseless and underground; not obvious or readily accessible to poor houseless wanderers; and it cannot be denied that the outside air and framework of London society is harsh, cruel, and repulsive. It took me ten pages to acclimate to the slightly archaic diction, but once I did the reading was enjoyable. There's a guardedness about certain episodes in the author's life which evoked wonder and curiosity in this reader. He focuses on opium addiction almost to the utter exclusion of everything else. The focus is laser-like. Recommended.

[jonpgorman · Valutazione: 1 su 5 stelle]

i found this book to be very dry and difficult to get through

[jhudsui_1 · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

Back in the 19th century Erowid trip reports featured a lot more orientalism and bragging about how much Ancient Greek you knew but were otherwise essentially as we know them now.

[p_s_patrick · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

This is the autobiography of Thomas de Quincey, a 19th century intellectual who indulged in opium use for a large proportion of his life. The book only gets onto the opium after half way through, and spends a while detailing his childhood and younger years. Smaller sections toward the end give account of the pleasures and pains of opium, and are just as interesting to read as the earlier parts. What is distinctive of this book is the apparent candor with which the author writes, the details of his thoughts and feelings through the various times in his life, and his observations on human nature. This is as much a view onto life in the period as it is a view onto the life of Quincey, and as it also contains his views of literary contemporaries, it should be of interest to fans of literature of this time.

[wonderperson · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

A good attempt to write an honest account of what it is like to live as a Male Lifelong Opium Eater; that is in drops of Red Poison Tincture gotten from the Chemist, whose first use was to relieve the pain of toothache.
Da Quincey is less inclined to open his heart as to the negative effects of Opium which he defends to the end and even tries to take himself off it- a difficult exercise which leads to much suffering which he details in his book.
The Author is nomadic, homeless (what you would get today), independent, suffering the full effect of uninhibited memory release as a result of the Opium.
When he tries to come off it as if Memories buried beneath the fog of the drug come to the surface.
A very interesting book and one of many I am reading into the lives of those who are addicted.