Opium, which came from the mysterious and attractive East, was surrounded in the 19th century with an aura of a miracle potion. De Quincey simultaneously destroyed and strengthened this legend, because, perhaps, since the time of Robinson Crusoe there has not been a work in English literature with a touch of extraordinaryness that readers would so obediently trust. "Confession" (1822) begins with memories of De Quincey's youth. “A child who has seen hell,” this is how T. Carlyle described De Quincey, who met him in his old age and was amazed at his physical miniature, fragility combined with the scope of his mind and fortitude. “Confession” influenced E. Poe, C. Baudelaire, J.C. Huysmans, Russian decadents.