Among the earliest artistic description of the hallucinogenic experience in European literature, the four pieces in this volume document Gautier s and Baudelaire s own involvement in the Club of Assassins, who met under the auspices of Dr Moreau to investigate the mindenhancing effects of hashish, wine and opium. As well as providing an absorbing account of nineteenthcentury drug use, Hashish, Wine, Opium captures the spirit of French Romanticism in its struggle to free the mind from the shackles of the humdrum and the conventional, and serves as a fascinating prologue to the psychedelic literature of the following centuries.
Alma Classics is committed to make available the widest range of literature from around the globe. All the titles are provided with an extensive critical apparatus, extra reading material including a section of photographs and notes. The texts are based on the most authoritative edition (or collated from the most authoritative editions or manuscripts) and edited using a fresh, intelligent editorial approach. With an emphasis on the production, editorial and typographical values of a book, Alma Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading the classics.
