Absinthe: History in a Bottle Book

Barnaby Conrad III chose a fitting subtitle for this book: 'History in a Bottle'. Absinthe conjures fin-de-siècle images of brooding poets, manic painters, and workers shorn of hope and ambition, all guzzling the milky green liquid as they headed toward physical ruin and moral decay. When a Swiss labourer murdered his family in August 1905 after indulging in absinthe (among other spirituous liquors), a movement to ban the drink sprang to life. By World War I, absinthe was illegal almost everywhere, and it became the symbol of a decadent period in European history.

There's no question that the absinthe our forefathers enjoyed in boulevard cafes and poets' dens was just short of being poison. The average batch was 120-144 proof, and had high levels of thujone, a component of the wormwood herb used in absinthe production. Thujone, in sufficient doses, could cause convulsions. But any herb-based liquor is harmful in excess, and only the hardcore 'absintheurs' refrained from diluting their doses with water and sugar. Conrad suggests that absinthe, whose emerald green color spawned the nickname 'Green Fairy', was the victim of a hysterical element that needed a scapegoat for the drunken murderers, crazy artists, and moral degenerates that seemed to abound. I wonder what they did when these same social problems persisted after the Green Fairy had its wings clipped?

Conrad has written an intelligent overview of this controversial drink. He traces the 'cult of absinthe' to the 1840s, when the government of France issued it to soldiers stationed in Algeria as a means of preventing fevers. Absinthe quickly became popular among French workers, who embraced it as tightly as their English counterparts did gin. When it acquired a following among self-destructive writers and artists like Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Verlaine, Vincent Van Gogh, and Dadaism pioneer Alfred Jarry, absinthe was branded guilty by association.

'Absinthe- History in a Bottle' is a beautiful volume, with glossy pages and colourful images. Because the text is interspersed with attractive illustrations and packed with titillating anecdotes about such infamous absintheurs as Oscar Wilde and Vincent Van Gogh, it will appeal to the general interest reader as well as those with some familiarity with the unruly history of absinthe.