Thomas De Quincey 
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater [PDF ebook] 
Being an Extract from the Life of a Scholar

You won’t be able to put down this gripping first-hand account of opium addiction that shocked England after its initial publication in 1821. Thomas De Quincy was a renowned author and intellectual who fell prey to a laudanum addiction as a young man, and who later recounted his experiences in excruciating detail in a series of anonymously published magazine serials. This important early work provides a fascinating glimpse into the processes of drug addiction.