Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon

Opium was first used in a surprising venue — religious ceremonies — but soon passed into common usage as a cure for various ailments during Victorian times; a resonant symbol of the romantic, dissolute East; and an inducer of fever dreams and worse in those who failed to resist its lure. This beautifully designed book captures the heady essence of opium history and culture. Drawing on memoirs, science, and travel books, Opium traces the changing image of the drug through artifacts and apparatus of its use; illustrations of opium dens in Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, Toulon, and Canton; portraits of drug-taking writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Théophile Gautier, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, and Graham Greene; lurid covers of 19th-century illustrated newspapers and 20th-century pulp-fiction drug titles; and stills from drug-related films that resonate with opium's insidious, enduring allure.