'The best book ever written' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian Robert Burton's labyrinthine, beguiling, playful masterpiece is his attempt to 'anatomize and cut up' every aspect of the condition of melancholy, from which he had suffered throughout his life. Ranging over beauty, digestion, the planets, alcohol, goblins, kissing, poetry and the restorative power of books, among many other things, The Anatomy of Melancholy has fascinated figures from Samuel Johnson to Jorge Luis Borges since the seventeenth century, and remains an ...
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'The best book ever written' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian Robert Burton's labyrinthine, beguiling, playful masterpiece is his attempt to 'anatomize and cut up' every aspect of the condition of melancholy, from which he had suffered throughout his life. Ranging over beauty, digestion, the planets, alcohol, goblins, kissing, poetry and the restorative power of books, among many other things, The Anatomy of Melancholy has fascinated figures from Samuel Johnson to Jorge Luis Borges since the seventeenth century, and remains an incomparable examination of the human condition in all its flawed, endless variety. Edited with an introduction by Angus Gowland
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i ordered the anatomy of melancholy and instead received what appeared to be a summary with incomprehensible breaks and typos. i am not sure what the point of printing that is.
Brereton
Aug 11, 2009
Cure for Prozak
We all inhabit our own little world, peering out of it, wondering if others feel the same joys or pains. Readers probably tend to be a introverted group, and I suspect many somtimes feel suffering in their own inward eye. What a palliative then to hear a sister voice discoursing on how to avoid or tolerate these melancholy wanderings.
This brilliant author pulls sources from thousands of ancient and midddle ages books from the library that surrounded him as he starts off on a medical treatis and turns to philosophical and phychological reflections. He fills his mind and pages with quotations and musings as we can imagine him displacing his own melancholy. One idea that struck me was that our discontents are not just the product of our industrial age.
This would not be for the casual reader; but if you love Plutarch and greek philosophy you may enjoy this little gem from the past and spend a few hours smiling while a beautiful soul from the past seeks a bit of solace.
