"The Pains of Sleep" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In this poem, the opium-addicted Coleridge gave what he told his fellow poet Southey was "a true portrait of my nights". "Desire with Loathing strangely mixt, / On wild or hateful Objects fixt".

Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey

De Quincey may have meant his work as a warning against drugs, but the section on the pleasures of opium precedes any account of its pains. "The expansion of the benigner feelings, incident to opium, is . . . a healthy restoration to that state which the mind would naturally recover upon the removal of any deep-seated irritation of pain".

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Franklin Blake is in love with Rachel Verinder, but she goes cold on him because she is sure that he has been involved in the theft of her fabulous diamond. How could honest Franklin have done anything bad? Simple: his drink was doctored with laudanum and he was rendered a slave to suggestion.

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

The most shocking case of drug-taking in literature: Sherlock Holmes's indulgence in cocaine. "Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction". The drug, he tells Watson, is "transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind".

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Huxley experimented with LSD, but in his novel he gave his characters a delicious, spirit-sapping hallucinogen called Soma. It removes all pain and anxiety and is distributed free by the state. Citizens go on "soma holidays" and participate in soma-induced orgies. John the Savage tries to teach others to live without soma, but fails miserably.

The Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs

In Burroughs's deliberately directionless novel, William Lee narrates his misadventures in America, Mexico and some imaginary places such as the nightmarish Interzone. The protagonist is variously possessed by heroin, morphine and a German drug called Eukodol – and has visions of orgies, decapitations and police persecution.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

In Thompson's nakedly autobiographical novel, Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr Gonzo, set off across the desert with industrial quantities of mind-altering drugs. "And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour . . ." And so on.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Plenty of degradation in Welsh's tale of an Edinburgh heroin addict, but also an unconscionable observation of pleasure. "Sick Boy's are innocent and full ay wonder, his expression like a bairn thit's come through oan Christmas morning tae a pile ay gift-wrapped presents under a tree".

The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst

Self-confessed "narcotics virgin" Alex falls for Danny and is inducted into ecstasy-fuelled disco-bliss. Among the "cascades and strafings of coloured lights" in a Soho dive, he discovers true delight. Synaesthesia rules. "He closed his eyes and his mind sped ahead down the glittering tracks of sound".

Bad News by Edward St Aubyn

In the second volume of the Melrose trilogy, Patrick Melrose, travels to New York to collect his father's ashes and to embark on a drug binge. "He smelled the heart-breaking fragrance of the cocaine, and then a few seconds afterwards, in a time-lapse frenzy, its cold geometric flowers broke out everywhere and carpeted the surface of his inner vision". It won't end well.