About “Les paradis artificiels”
Les Paradis Artificiels is a 1860 essay by French poet Charles Baudelaire. It explores the effects of opium and hashish, describing the altered state of mind these drugs induce. Baudelaire considers how they might help humanity achieve an ideal state of being. The work was influenced by Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Baudelaire's own Suspiria de Profundis. Baudelaire's friend and colleague Théophile Gautier wrote about his experiences at the Club de Hashischins, a gathering held at the Hotel Pîmodan, where Baudelaire and Gautier first met. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)