On Wine and Hashish

Initially composed for newspaper publication and inspired by Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, Charles Baudelaire’s intriguing essays take a remarkably stark look at the use and effects of drink and drugs. Along the way he asserts the ambivalence of memory, urges a union of willpower and sensual pleasure, and claims that wine and hashish bring about an escape from narrative time. Surprisingly forward and positive in tone, this is a unique investigation from one of the great 19th-century poets.