In a literary context, this essay is a significant contribution to the genre of crime writing and the depiction of human nature.

" Determined to counter the lies about opium that had been told by travellers to the Orient and the medical profession, De Quincey describes his addiction, the consciousness alteringproperties of the drug, its pleasures and its pains.

This edition is based on the original serial version of 1821, and reproduces two “sequels”: Suspiria de Profundis (1845) and The English Mail-Coach (1849).

The essay is divided into three sections: Part I, "The Glory of Motion," is devoted to a lavish description of the mail coach system then in use in England, and the sensations of riding on the outside upper seats of the coaches; Part II, ...