CONFESSIOINS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER AND KINDRED PAPERS (VOLUME 1) by DE QUINCY, THOMAS - 1878

New York: Hurd and Houghton/The Riverside Press, 1878. Hardcover. Good +. 615 pp. Red cloth with black lettering and design on cover. Binding in blind on rear cover. Gilt lettering to spine. Black endpapers. Chipping/fraying to top and bottom of spine. Rubbing to cover. Soiling to foredges. Stitching visible between front endpapers else tight. Frontispiece of De Quincey - with copy of his signature, "Very truly yours, Tomas De Quincey. S. Hancock (Salomon) dated 1873 writes, "Presented to Amaranth L. Hancock" 1880. Publisher's Advertisement, Note from Author To The American Editor of his Works, Contents, Note to Reader. This is the first volume of a reissue of the Works of Thomas De Quincey in twelve uniform volumes, based on the American Edition in twenty-two volumes. De Quincey explains his wish to acknowledge the American Editors in having, "brought together so widely scattered a collection - a difficulty which in my own hands by too painful an experience I had found from nervous depression to be absolutely insurmountable." Confessions . . . is a record of a remarkable period in De Quincey's life. It is an exposure of his own errors and illness. De Quincey explains in his Note to the Reader that he believes this work will prove interesting, useful, and instructive. That is his hope and apology for "breaking through the delicate and honorable reserve which restrains us from exposing our own errors and infirmities. Nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings, that the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers, or scars, and tearing away that decent drapery which time, or indulgences to human frailty, may have drawn over them." An unusual book in its day, forecasting the rage of memoir to come. A fascinating book even in a single volume.