The Book of Absinthe: A Cultural History
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Book Overview
La Fee Verte (or The Green Fairy) has intoxicated artists, poets, and writers ever since the late eighteenth century. Stories abound of absinthe's druglike sensations of mood lift and inspiration due to the presence of wormwood, its infamous special ingredient, which ultimately leads to delirium, homicidal mania, and death. Opening with the sensational 1905 Absinthe Murders, Phil Baker offers a cultural history of absinthe, from its modest origins as an herbal tonic through its luxuriantly morbid heyday in the late nineteenth century. Chronicling a fascinatingly lurid cast of historical characters who often died young, the absinthe scrapbook includes Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Aleister Crowley, Arthur Machen, August Strindberg, Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Allais, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso. Along with discussing the rituals and modus operandi of absinthe drinking, Baker reveals the recently discovered pharmacology of how real absinthe actually works on the nervous system, and he tests the various real and fake absinthe products that are available overseas. The Book of Absinthe is a witty, erudite primer to the world's most notorious drink.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0802139930
ISBN13:9780802139931
Release Date:July 2003
Publisher:Grove Press
Length:304 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Goes down Smooth
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Baker has written a devilishly dark and entertaining account of that Wormwood-based drink which has recently come out of almost a century of obscurity. Science and biography are mixed in perfect proportions to make an informative and engaging read that, though somewhat limited in scope, is still refreshing at every page.
Viva La Fee Verte!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
If you are interested in reading about the cultural and artistic history of the Green Fairy this book should be on your shelf right next to Barnaby Conrad's book. Baker has a fine sense of humor and narrative that fills the book with a memory of fin-de-siecle style decadence. Do yourself a favor, skip the Adams text, grab both this and Conrad and pour yourself a measure of liquid delight. You won't be sorry.
Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about Absinthe
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
What I like about this book is Baker's approach and all the information he gives the reader. I really enjoyed reading this book, and do, in fact, now know very much about absinthe. Baker covers: how it came about, how it influenced artists and thinkers, to how it became vilified. There are some great anictdotes about artist such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and their drinking habits that were laugh out loud funny. I did not give the book 5 stars because it is so historical and filled with information that the book does sag a bit at points. But that does not take away terribly from the overall enjoyment I had reading it.
cool and green
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
This is the best book on absinthe, even better than the Barnaby Conrad book - which is kind of 'coffee table' by comparison - even though it doesn't have any color pictures. It's more Gothic, more literary, and much funnier (in a black humor sort of way). There's a lot of stuff that isn't in Conrad at all, like Aleister Crowley, and good material on 1890s London.I learnt a lot from this (but I probbaly won't remember it) because more than just the drink it's like an A-Z of decadence and high weirdness. And after that there's a guide to modern brands.It also has the real pharmacology,and it exposes all that stuff about absinthe and cannabis as just plain wrong.
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