Be Specific About Books During The Anatomy of Melancholy
| Original Title: | The Anatomy of Melancholy |
| ISBN: | 0940322668 (ISBN13: 9780940322660) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Robert Burton
Paperback | Pages: 1392 pages Rating: 4.18 | 1280 Users | 136 Reviews
Point Of Books The Anatomy of Melancholy
| Title | : | The Anatomy of Melancholy |
| Author | : | Robert Burton |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 1392 pages |
| Published | : | April 30th 2001 by NYRB Classics (first published 1621) |
| Categories | : | Philosophy. Psychology. Nonfiction. Classics. Writing. Essays. Science |
Ilustration Toward Books The Anatomy of Melancholy
One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in all its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Lewellyn Powys called it "the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing," while the celebrated surgeon William Osler declared it the greatest of medical treatises. And Dr. Johnson, Boswell reports, said it was the only book that he rose early in the morning to read with pleasure. In this surprisingly compact and elegant new edition, Burton's spectacular verbal labyrinth is sure to delight, instruct, and divert today's readers as much as it has those of the past four centuries.Rating Of Books The Anatomy of Melancholy
Ratings: 4.18 From 1280 Users | 136 ReviewsAppraise Of Books The Anatomy of Melancholy
The Anatomy of Melancholy, What It Is, With All The Kinds, Causes, Symptoms, Prognostics, And Several Cures Of It.In Three Partitions.With Their Several Sections, Members, and Subsections, Philosophically, Medically, Historically Opened And Cut Up.By Democritus Junior.With a Satirical Preface, Conducing To The Following Discourse.A New Edition, Corrected, And Enriched By Translations Of The Numerous Classical Extracts.By Democritus Minor. To Which Is Prefixed An Account Of The Author.This is possibly the greatest piece of scholarship I've ever read. As advertised, what you'll get is a very heavy book that exhaustively investigates melancholy with an extensive compendium of quotes. So if you share Walter Benjamin's opinion that: "Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction." you might share my lack of...well....conviction. Perhaps I'm just a bit irritated by what was one of the longest books I've read. When
At one point (ahead of his section on symptoms) Burton cautions melancholics not to read his book, for fear of the contagion of ideas -- just such as he discusses for the melancholic imagination. I see this book called a perpetual delight for its charms of prose and its magpie learning, but it is about the ills of the human condition and, you know, quite sad. It may be a companion to melancholics; it may be close to the bone and hard to read. I have just perused his pages on suicide (within the
Text with commentary in 6 volumes.
The first partition, Democritus to the Reader, is a rare gem and serves as a map of the text as a whole. If you don't have much time, this section is sufficient in familiarizing yourself with Burton's work. If you have insomnia however, or nothing else to do, dig deeper. Burton's inspections of depression, anxiety, fundamentalism, obsession, the insatiable desire to know our origin, love, political corruption, hypocrisy, sex, and overindulgence are refreshing and just as pertinent today as they
To be fair to Burton I quite enjoyed pieces of this but if I handed something so bloated and repetitive to my agent she's just shoot me and I would not blame her. (Oh, to be a man with an Oxbridge degree in 1621.)
Unius ætatis sunt quæ fortiter fiunt, quæ vero pro utilitate Reipub. scribuntur, æterna or a soldier's work lasts for an age, a scholar's for ever.-- Vigetius, quoted in Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy I was given this book five years ago by my best friend/college roomate for my birthday. He gave me a beautiful John C. Nimmo, 1886 edition with Morocco spine labels. The books were beautiful. Keith is a helluva friend. It took me almost a year, however, to start reading the books. In May of 2013 I
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