"Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" is an autobiographical narrative by English author Thomas De Quincey. First published in The London Magazine in two parts in 1821, then as a book, with an appendix, in 1822.
De Quincey's rather majestic, classically learned and singular style inspires every page of his writing. His "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" 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 Confessions makes it one of the enduring stylistic masterpieces of English literature.
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 "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" and added descriptions of opium-inspired dreams.