Book excerpt: In the 1840s, Charles Baudelaire was a regular member of the infamous Club des Hashischins ("Club of the Hashish-Eaters”), a Parisian literary group dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness, principally through the use of hashish (a concentrated form of cannabis resin). Other notable members of this group included Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Gerard de Nerval, Honoré de Balzac, and Théophile Gautier, all dedicated to experimenting with drugs and drug-induced states. As a denizen of the Hashishin Club, Charles Baudelaire was well-placed to turn his drug experiences, and those of others, into literature. Inspired by Thomas de Quincey's 1821 Confessions Of An Opium-Eater (which he would also translate into French), he turned his writing to drug intoxication around 1850, eventually producing a collection of drug-related writings titled Artificial Paradise, published in 1858. As well as a modified version of an earlier essay, now titled "On Wine And Hashish”, Artificial Paradise contained "The Poem Of Hashish”, a lengthy dissertation on the effects of prolonged hashish use. This special ebook edition of Baudelaire's writings on hashish and alcohol contains both "On Wine And Hashish”and "The Poem Of Hashish”, plus the bonus text "Get Drunk”, a prose-poetic exhortation to perpetual inebriation.