&quot;Confessions of an English Opium-Eater&quot; is an autobiographical narrative by English author Thomas De Quincey. First published in The <i>London Magazine</i> in two parts in 1821, then as a book, with an appendix, in 1822.<br /><br />De Quincey&rsquo;s rather majestic, classically learned and singular style inspires every page of his writing. His &quot;Confessions of an English Opium-Eater&quot; guarantees him a place in this series as a writer whose life and writing were equally expressive of an unquenchable originality of thought and behaviour. The highly poetic and imaginative prose of the <i>Confessions</i> makes it one of the enduring stylistic masterpieces of English literature.<br /><br />The avowed purpose of the first version of &quot;Confessions of an English Opium-Eater&quot; was to warn the reader of the dangers of opium, and it combined the interest of a journalistic expos&eacute; of a social evil, told from an addict&rsquo;s point of view, with a somewhat contradictory and seductive picture of the subjective pleasures of drug addiction. The book begins with an autobiographical account of the author&rsquo;s addiction. It then describes in effective detail the euphoric and highly symbolic reveries that he experienced under the drug&rsquo;s influence and recounts the horrible nightmares that continued use of the drug eventually produced.&nbsp;<br /><br />Athough De Quincey ends his narrative at a point at which he is drug-free, he remained an opium addict for the rest of his life. In 1856 he rewrote &quot;Confessions of an English Opium-Eater&quot; and added descriptions of opium-inspired dreams.