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Product Description
Mysteriously sophisticated, darkly alluring, almost Satanic: absinthe was the drink of choice for Baudelaire, Verlaine and Wilde. It inspired paintings by Degas and Manet, van Gogh and Picasso. It was blamed for conditions ranging from sterility to madness, to French defeats in World War I. The campaign against 'the devil in a bottle' resulted in its ban throughout most of Europe. "Hideous Absinthe" is a biography of the 'green fairy' that questions the basis of anti-absinthe hysteria and describes how absinthe came to symbolise the high points of art and the depths of degeneration. It comes up-to-date via the thrill-seeking American absinthe drinkers in the twentieth century, from Hemingway to the backpackers of Prague; and covers the rediscovery of absinthe in England's club culture of the twenty-first century.
About the Author
Jad Adams is a writer and television producer whose last book Madder Music, Stronger Wine: The Life of Ernest Dowson, Poet and Decadent (I.B.Tauris), received resounding critical praise in Britain and the US. He has also written biographies of Tony Benn and of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. He lives in London and on the Greek island of Leros.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I became interested in Absinthe after reading of how it is often blamed for the madness of notable characters such as Van Gogh and also blamed for, or at least being a major contributing factor in the death of Ernest Dowson. Adam's book is a history of the drink, the place it had in society, ranging from being a cure for almost all ills, to being the poison of many, and even the poison of Nations.
Adam's accounts of how Absinthe affected (or in fact, did not) the life and creativity of characters such as Van Gogh, Strindberg, Verlaine, Dowson and Wilde gives a unique insight into the lives of these important artists and writers who would use Absinth to escape from a World where they were often misunderstood.
This journey with the 'green fairy' takes us from the very first mention of Absinthe and Wormwood, and it's use as an almost miracle cure, including a cure for drunkenness(!), through the decades of decadence and excess, war and prohibition to the present day.
A very welcome but unexpected affect this book has had on this reader, is that it really has given a glimpse into the world of some hugely interesting characters from the past that I will now explore.
An outstanding history of "the devil in a bottle".
Adam's accounts of how Absinthe affected (or in fact, did not) the life and creativity of characters such as Van Gogh, Strindberg, Verlaine, Dowson and Wilde gives a unique insight into the lives of these important artists and writers who would use Absinth to escape from a World where they were often misunderstood.
This journey with the 'green fairy' takes us from the very first mention of Absinthe and Wormwood, and it's use as an almost miracle cure, including a cure for drunkenness(!), through the decades of decadence and excess, war and prohibition to the present day.
A very welcome but unexpected affect this book has had on this reader, is that it really has given a glimpse into the world of some hugely interesting characters from the past that I will now explore.
An outstanding history of "the devil in a bottle".
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Overrated and Pretentious
13 Sep 2006
Format:Hardcover
Adams covers the same info that Conrad and Baker discuss but with a tone of condescension and puritanism that blankets the text like a fine scum of oil over water. Halfway though the book I wanted to curse him; after listening to his boorish and uninspired NPR interview I wanted to punch his lights out. If you like feeling superior, this book is for you. Otherwise stick with Conrad.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Interesting but glossy
10 Jan 2006
Format:Hardcover
After hearing the author on npr I was eager to purchase and read this book. The book is well researched and it is overflowing with gossip about those artists with whom absinthe has been so intertwined--Proust, Gaugin, et al. The author contends that the drink had little or no real impact on the creative abilities of the writers and painters of the 19th century who claimed that the Green Fairy was their great muse. The argument falls flat, however. Whether the drink spurred the creativity or not is not as clear as the belief of the artists that it did have a very powerful and empowering influence. It is all very "chicken or the egg" speculation but in the end, this book is a fun read if you want a little dish on the life and times of these absinthe influenced artists.
26 of 35 people found the following review helpful
The Green Fairy Exposed
26 Mar 2004
Format:Hardcover
Different alcoholic drinks have reputations for appealing to different descriptions of people. The crowd of beer drinkers is different from those who favor cognac, as are those who like sherry different from those who drink single malts. There is no drink with so strong a reputation for a particular set of drinkers than absinthe. A cult drink in nineteenth century France, it has strong associations with poets and painters; the claims made for it have been extravagantly laudatory and condemnatory. It figures largely in literature and paintings of that time and place, which has only increased its reputation, good and bad. And it is still under prohibition in many countries, including the United States, which makes it forbidden fruit. Thus there is a good story, lots of good stories, to tell in _Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle_ (University of Wisconsin Press) by Jad Adams. It isn't too surprising that a main lesson of the book is that extravagant claims, positive and negative, for "the green fairy" are simply exaggerations.
Absinthe is a high-proof alcohol drink to which has been added essential oils of wormwood, plus aniseed or fennel, which taste like liquorice and gave the famous clear green color. It became particularly a drink for French Bohemian writers and artists. Adams shows, however, that the poets and painters who concentrated on absinthe as a subject were minor artists busy cultivating a bohemian atmosphere around themselves; the greater artists might have included it as part of their world, but had no particular fascination for it. Wormwood has a chemical called thujone within it, which might be a mild hallucinogen, but there is question that it would have had any significant effect at the dose provided in absinthe. What certainly would have had effect is the high amount of alcohol in the drink. Absinthe's widespread adoption scared the French government, which listened to the experts blaming it for everything from anarchy to population decline to the rise of Jews. A national ban was eventually enforced in 1915. In England, absinthe never had much of a hold, as it was seen as representing everything corrupt about France. In the US, those who provided alcohol during prohibition had little interest in this particular aperitif, and when prohibition was lifted, absinthe remained on the list of banned drugs. It was still available to American expatriates in different countries in Europe, and when the Cold War ended, tourism to such places as Prague brought a new boom in absinthe-drinking.
Except that there was little to match the extravagant reports of a century before. Absinthe became trendy with some rock stars (one ad campaign said, "Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1899"), and it isn't surprising that their experiences of it did not meet those of the introverted Parisian artists that had gone before. Part of the problem is that they are not drinking the same thing. Absinthe from eastern Europe did not smell of aniseed, did not have oils so that it did not turn cloudy during the preparation ceremony, and did not have nearly enough wormwood to cause mental effects above those from the alcohol. Any chemical artistic inspiration just wasn't there. In a fascinating work of history with short biographies of famous drinkers of the time, Adams shows that the problem wasn't chemical. Absinthe met the expectations of a particular crowd of artists who gave it a particular reputation at a particular time. Even if the absintheur rock band Sugar Cubes (lead by the famous Björk) had the absinthe that Van Gogh drank, it would be a bit much to expect equivalent masterpieces.
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