Overview

Walter Benjamin's posthumously published collection of writings on hashish is a detailed blueprint for a book that was never written--a "truly exceptional book about hashish," as Benjamin describes it in a letter to his friend Gershom Scholem. A series of "protocols of drug experiments," written by himself and his co-participants between 1927 and 1934, together with short prose pieces that he published during his lifetime, On Hashish provides a peculiarly intimate portrait of Benjamin, venturesome as ever at the end of the Weimar Republic, and of his unique form of thought.

Consciously placing himself in a tradition of literary drug-connoisseurs from Baudelaire to Hermann Hesse, Benjamin looked to hashish and other drugs for an initiation into what he called "profane illumination." At issue here, as everywhere in Benjamin's work, is a new way of seeing, a new connection to the ordinary world. Under the influence of hashish, as time and space become inseparable, experiences become subtly stratified and resonant: we inhabit more than one plane in time. What Benjamin, in his contemporaneous study of Surrealism, calls "image space" comes vividly to life in this philosophical immersion in the sensuous.

This English-language edition of On Hashish features a section of supplementary materials--drawn from Benjamin's essays, letters, and sketches--relating to hashish use, as well as a reminiscence by his friend Jean Selz, which concerns a night of opium-smoking in Ibiza. A preface by Howard Eiland discusses the leading motifs of Benjamin's reflections on intoxication.


ISBN-13

9780674022218

ISBN-10

0674022211

Weight

0.56 Pounds

Dimensions

5.50 x 0.56 x 7.50 In

List Price

$30.00

Edition

1st Edition

Format

-

Language

English

Pages

208 pages

Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

Published On

2006-05-30



View All Offers

Sort by:

Rows per page:

1–5 of 5

Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Brand New
Seller details
Book Culture Inc.
★★★★★

New York, NY, USA

Brand New. Ships from an indie bookstore in NYC. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 208 p.
$37.20

 Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026

Used, Like New
Seller details
GreatBookPrices-
★★★★☆

Columbia, MD, USA

100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition. We offer expedited shipping to all US locat...
$43.07

 Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026

Used, Good
Seller details
Bonita
★★★★☆

Santa Clarita, CA, USA

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
$43.08

 Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026

Brand New
Seller details
Bonita
★★★★☆

Santa Clarita, CA, USA

$71.32

 Free delivery by: 29 Mar 2026


Bookstores.com relies on cookies to improve your experience.