Let us call them, therefore, Our Ladies of Sorrow. I know them thoroughly and have walked in all their kingdoms. Three sisters they are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of their dominion there is no end.
In this book, De Quincey engages really powerfully with the griefs and traumas that, in his opinion, made him particularly susceptible to opium addiction and also made that addiction such a horrible trauma itself. The title means “Sighs from the Depths” and this is a deeply sad and incredibly beautiful treatise on grief and depression. De Quincey’s writing here is just at a real pinnacle and this is transporting and evocative without ever being over the top or melodramatic. There’s a late section in the book where he personifies the different kinds of sorrows in the figure of three women, all related, but all quite different. The writing over those pages is just some of the mostly finely crafted, deeply evocative, most beautiful writing I’ve ever encountered. De Quincey is justly famous for his Confessions of an English Opium Eater, but he has absolutely bested himself here, in my opinion. This is a haunting, powerful and compelling work. The emotions here are raw and powerful, but the writing is measured and gorgeous, not sloppy. This is unquestionably a masterpiece. And not much over a hundred pages. Though don’t speed through it; this is a book to be experienced deeply. 4 stars.
tl;dr – De Quincey explores grief, terror and sorrow in a deeply personal, yet also universal, way in this gripping, beautifully written, haunting masterpiece. 4 stars.