AltAlthough I first discovered Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater in college, I began to appreciate the weird emotional intensity of this work only later in life. Confessions is an unrepentant account of the author’s lifelong addiction to opium. The book’s cult status as the first drug memoir should not obscure the beauty of De Quincey’s vision. His memoir  blends autobiography with descriptions of haunting, narcotic-induced dreams. Revealed as a series of wondrous and terrifying scenes, Confessions compels the reader to visualize the spectacular architecture of De Quincey’s dream world. By making solid human fantasy, this book continues to illuminate and inspire.