He lapses into foreign phrases and quotes Shakespeare even while attempting to steal a woman's purse, trying to pawn a typewriter for drinking money, and smashing his face on a banister.

Perhaps the only thing keeping Birnam from drinking himself to death is his girlfriend Helen, a selfless and incorruptible woman who tolerates his behavior out of love.

No sooner has he begun to recover from his "Lost Weekend" than he contemplates killing Helen's maid to get the key to the liquor cabinet.

Philip Wylie wrote in the New York Times Book Review that "Charles Jackson has made the most compelling gift to the literature of addiction since De Quincey.

[4] The book has also been noted for having homosexual overtones with a strong implication that Don Birnam, just like Charles Jackson, is bisexual.

[5][6] The book was adapted into a 1945 film directed by Billy Wilder featuring Ray Milland as Don Birnam.