Search for Paradise.

 

Charles Baudelaire published the collection Les Paradis artificiels (translated as "Artificial Paradise") in 1860. By that time, the poet had already overcome his opium addiction, but he returns to the subject, which was not tabooed at the time, to systematize... knowledge. This is a true investigation, partly scientific, partly based on the ordered empirical experiences of the poet himself and other well-known participants (J.-J. Rousseau, T. Gautier, and of course, T. De Quincey). Baudelaire is objective; he recounts all the affects, thoughts, and consequences without embellishments or exaltations. The work remains significant in the genre of a psychedelic diary, like the notes of T. Gautier, T. De Quincey, or "The Doors of Perception" by A. Huxley.