Research Catalog

Emperors of dreams : drugs in the nineteenth century / Mike Jay.

Title
Emperors of dreams : drugs in the nineteenth century / Mike Jay.
Author
Jay, Mike, 1959 December 14-
Publication
Sawtry : Dedalus, 2000.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance HV5801 .J39 2000Off-site

Details

Description
277 p.; 20 cm.
Summary
"Coleridge and de Quincey swilling bitter draughts of opium, Sigmund Freud and Sherlock Holmes dallying with cocaine, Baudelaire and Gautier rapt in hashish fantasies behind velvet curtains, even Queen Victoria swallowing her prescription dose of cannabis - these snapshot images are familiar, but what is the story which lies behind them? How did cannabis and cocaine, opium and ether, mushrooms and mescaline enter the modern world, and what was their impact on the nineteenth century's dreams and nightmares?" "Emperors of Dreams tells the stories of how all these substances were first discovered, and paints a fresh and startling picture both of today's illicit drugs and of the nineteenth century. It shows that the age of Empire and Victorian values was awash with legal narcotics, stimulants and psychedelics, and traces their progress through the rapidly evolving worlds of science and colonial expansion, the demi-mondes of popular subculture and literary bohemia, and the rising tide of temperance and prohibition."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • History
  • History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-272) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
1. "Oh! Excellent Air Bag": Nitrous Oxide -- 2. The Black Drop: Opium -- 3. The Seraphim Theatre: Cannabis -- 4. Attack of the Vapours: Ether -- 5. "Watson -- The Needle!": Cocaine -- 6. A New Artificial Paradise: Mescaline -- 7. Ardent Spirits: Temperance and Prohibition.
ISBN
1873982488
OCLC
  • 44651798
  • SCSB-11859382
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library