First published in Paris in 1904 under the title Fumée d'opium, this landmark work by French naval officer and author Claude Farrère—pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone—offers a vivid and decadent glimpse into the colonial drug subculture of French Indochina, Tonkin, and the broader Far East. Preceded by an introduction by Pierre Louÿs, the text presents a series of interconnected sketches, autobiographical vignettes, and hallucinatory dreamscapes chronicling the psychological and physical intoxication of the opium den. Following the success of his Prix Goncourt-winning novel Les Civilisés, Farrère's atmospheric accounts became central to early twentieth-century literary decadence and orientalist exploration.

Due to the era's stringent obscenity laws regarding narcotics and colonial nightlife, American distribution required private subscription publication rather than commercial trade channels. Translated by modernist literary scholar Samuel Putnam and enhanced by the stylized illustrations and decorative floral vignettes of Austrian-American artist Alexander King, this scarce 1931 edition was privately printed for subscribers in New York by Robert C. Fairberg. Bound in textured burnt orange cloth with black stamped rules and lettering along the spine, the volume represents a compelling intersection of interwar bohemian press production and literary modernism. Sourced directly from the estate of an anthropologist affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, the volume retains exceptional intellectual provenance.

This piece measures approximately 9.5 inches in height, 6.5 inches in width, and 1.5 inches in depth, and weighs approximately 1.5 pounds. It features 229 numbered text pages with secure binding, intact hinges, and crisp interior leaves exhibiting mild uniform age toning.