Among the earliest artistic accounts of the hallucinogenic experience in European literature, the four pieces in this volume document Gautier and Baudelaire s own involvement in the Club of Assassins, who met under the auspices of Dr Moreau to investigate the psychological and mind-enhancing effects of hashish, wine, and opium. As well as providing an absorbing of nineteenth-century drug use, Hashish, Wine, Opium captures the spirit of French Romanticism, in its struggle to free the mind from the shackles of the humdrum and the conventional, and serves as a fascinating prologue to the...
Among the earliest artistic accounts of the hallucinogenic experience in European literature, the four pieces in this volume document Gautier and Baud...
In the reign of Cleopatra, an insignificant young man is in love. MeIamoun is captivated by his beloved, but she seems unattainable. There is a reason why the handsome young fellow is barred from his quest. The one he wants is his queen. He stands on the outskirts of great ceremonies just to catch a glimpse of her. He dreams of her charms and fascinations constantly. One night, having followed her royal cangia along the Nile to a palace at the waters' edge, his obsession overtakes him - through an open window he fires an arrow with a note attached which bears the simple words "I love you."...
In the reign of Cleopatra, an insignificant young man is in love. MeIamoun is captivated by his beloved, but she seems unattainable. There is a rea...
When Paul d'Aspremont travels to Naples to join Alicia Ward, his beautiful fiancee, he is surprised to see her grow pale under his gaze, and to discover that an Italian suitor, Count Altavilla, is trying to win her affections. Soon the strange gestures and whispers of the locals convince him - against his better judgement - that indeed he has the evil eye, and that he must resort to extreme measures if he wants to shield Alicia from its deadly effects. This 1856 novella from the master of fantasy and the supernatural, featuring one of the most hauntingly surreal denouements in...
When Paul d'Aspremont travels to Naples to join Alicia Ward, his beautiful fiancee, he is surprised to see her grow pale under his gaze, and to discov...