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The Dedalus Book of Absinthe
 
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The Dedalus Book of Absinthe (Paperback)

by Phil Baker (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Frequently Bought Together

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Product details

  • Paperback: 296 pages
  • Publisher: Dedalus Ltd (8 Dec 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1903517400
  • ISBN-13: 978-1903517406
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 267,148 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #91 in  Books > Food & Drink > Drinks & Beverages > Spirits & Cocktails

Product Description

Review

Absinthe, the forerunner of all anise-based drinks, originated in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean. It first made its appearance in western Europe when a Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, fleeing from the French Revolution, set up as a travelling physician in and around the Swiss border town of Covet and started peddling an elixir of anise, fennel, camomile, coriander and wormwood, distilled in alcohol. First sold commercially as Pernod, absinthe was high in alcoholic strength (65-75 per cent) yet also dry and refreshing. The French army, returning from Algeria in 1830, said that diluting it with water gave protection from malaria and it was soon taken up by smart French society. It was also embraced by radical artists and writers, among them Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Toulouse-Lautrec, partly to flout polite society, partly because it was believed (like hashish and opium) to stimulate artistic creativity. In the late 1870s, however, it lost public favour in France in the face of opposition from the authorities and acquired a reputation, not unlike gin in 18th-century England, as a weird, mind-altering, hallucinogenic, shamanic drug, the tipple of madmen and degenerates. Van Gogh for instance, reputedly drank it before cutting off his ear. But the main concern of the authorities was drinking by females and the working class. In 1915, fearing that it would undermine France's fighting in World War I, the French senate banned the sale of absinthe in France. Other countries followed suit but not Britain, where absinthe continued to be part of the cocktail culture of the 1920s (it figures in Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall of 1928) nor Denmark, Spain or the Czech Republic, which began to export it again after the 'velvet revolution' of 1989. The author sees absinthe as a much-maligned and even demonized drink. His book is an erudite and elegantly written history of the cultural rituals of absinthe drinking and in particular its association with the Decadents of 1890s Paris. He also discusses the recently discovered pharmacology of how absinthe actually works on the nervous system and adds an appendix with excerpts from selected classic texts on the drink. An excellent guide to a notorious spirit. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Fortean Times, February, 2002

literate and cheerfully squalid... a model of popular cultural history... brilliant --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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The Dedalus Book of Absinthe
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Has all and more that one would expect on absinthe., 3 Jan 2002
Absinthe, until it's recent availabilty has been a rather mysterious drink, known mainly through fiction, and with connotations of something rather destructive and dangerous. Perhaps the forerunner of some drug hastily taken during a night of clubbing today. But exactly what? How much is what was said about absinthe is the truth, and exactly why did it almost disappear? Phil Baker examines every possible conjecture about Absinthe and in separating myth from fact, still manages to maintain the mystique that this drink will always have. Fictional occurences are well quoted, and the over all good humoured tone of the book is excellent.
Apart from reading this book with a glass of absinthe at one's elbow, (and there is a guide to the best brand), it is difficult to see how this book could be bettered. It was skim read by a casual visitor who had no previous interest in the subject, and he has now bought a copy.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent & entertaining history of the famed Green Drink, 19 May 2002
By A Customer
This well-researched history of Absinthe is an absolute joy. It chronicles the devotion, effect, and, in some cases, destruction experienced through this drink by not only the masses but influential writers and artists such as Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, Baudelaire, Ernest Dowson, Verlaine & Rimbaud, Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh, et al. Also contains handy reviews of currently obtainable brands of the drink. Highly recommended!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars GOTHIC CLASSIC, 8 Sep 2005
By A Customer
This is brilliantly written, the writing has a kind of charm in it, and a touch of black humour. It seems extremely erudite, about poetry and nineteenth century literature and decadence and some real oddball characters, and the best thing is it is terrfically atmospheric. You can really get deep into it. I was sorry when I finished it - I will read it again one day.
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