Hideous Absinthe: A History Of The "Devil In A Bottle"

"The book looks at absinthe's contribution to the hedonistic culture of the French Second Empire and to Toulouse-Lautrec's Paris of the 1890s. It gives a sceptical examination of the agitation against absinthe in the bizarre world of the French temperance movement where wine was not considered to be alcohol and drunks were referred to as absintheurs even if they never drank it." "The book details the outraged English reaction to absinthe in the context of resistance to French art. Absinthe was seen as a foreign poison undermining the national resolve just as the decadence of Oscar Wilde and his circle was undermining national culture at a time when war with France was thought to be inevitable." It comes up to date via the thrill-seeking American absinthe drinkers in the twentieth century, from Hemingway to the backpackers of Prague. It ends with the rediscovery of absinthe in England's club culture of the twenty-first century.