Opium den  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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An opium den was an establishment where opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America and France. Throughout the West, opium dens were frequented by and associated with the Chinese, because the establishments were usually run by Chinese who supplied the opium as well as prepared it for visiting non-Chinese smokers. Most opium dens kept a supply of opium paraphernalia such as the specialized pipes and lamps that were necessary to smoke the drug. Patrons would recline in order to hold the long opium pipes over oil lamps that would heat the drug until it vaporized, allowing the smoker to inhale the vapors. Opium dens in China were frequented by all levels of society, and their opulence or simplicity reflected the financial means of the patrons. In urban areas of the United States, particularly on the West Coast, there were opium dens that mirrored the best to be found in China, with luxurious trappings and female attendants. For the working class, there were also many low-end dens with sparse furnishings. These latter dens were more likely to admit non-Chinese smokers.

References in fiction

• Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Gate Of A Hundred Sorrows" tells the history of a Chinese opium den in India.
• In Charles Dickens's final and uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, an opium den is a critical element of the story.
• In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Man with the Twisted Lip" by Arthur Conan Doyle, Dr. Watson goes to an opium den in the East End of London to find Isa Whitney.
• In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian visits the opium dens of London when indulging in the pleasures of life whether moral or immoral, subject to the influential character Lord Henry and his hedonistic outlook on life.
• In Around the World in Eighty Days, Fix attempts to delay Fogg by giving Passepartout a pipe in a Hong Kong opium den.
• In The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu (1913), Nayland Smith and Dr Petrie enter Singapore Charlie's Thames-side opium den in search of Dr Fu Manchu and his henchmen.
• In the 1923 Agatha Christie magazine short story The Lost Mine, Hercule Poirot is forced, much against his will, to conduct part of his investigation in a Limehouse opium den. The story appeared in book form in the American version of Poirot Investigates (1925) and in the UK in Poirot's Early Cases (1974).
• In Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, the main character Tom tells his religious mother that he goes to an opium den.
• In the The Adventures of Tintin story The Blue Lotus, the main character Tintin is involved in infiltrating opium dens.
• In the 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America, the character Noodles (Robert De Niro) frequents an opium den.
• In the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mina Murray finds aged adventurer Allan Quatermain in an opium den. "Singapore Charlie's" den is the setting of their first encounter with the "Devil Doctor".
• In the film adaptation of From Hell the main character frequents opium dens.
• Opium den (Gustave Doré )[1]