Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey

All I knew about Thomas De Quincey was opium: his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is often considered the first addiction memoir, and it made him a hero to Poe, Dostoevsky, and Borges. His life turns out to be as erratic, brilliant, and obsessive as you might expect, especially in the hands of Wilson, who doesn't trouble herself with many of the usual biographical requirements. Her book mimics De Quincey's own strange intelligence, following strands of allusion and odd obsession; like De Quincey's exasperated friends (William and Dorothy Wordsworth most prominently among them), I sometimes would have liked a little more regularity to Wilson's story, but I wouldn't have traded the highest flights of her brilliance to get it. It's a book worthy of its subject (and its strangely alluring title).