The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author(s): Robert Burton
Philosophy, Politics & Current Affairs
One of the major documents of modern European civilisation, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in 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 prosewriting', 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.
Product Information
Robert Burton (1577-1640) was elected a student of Christ Church in 1599 and took his BD in 1614. He served as a vicar in Oxford and then as the rector of Seagrave. The Anatomy of Melancholy appeared in five editions during the author's lifetime and has been reprinted countless times since.
General Fields
- :
- : New York Review of Books, Incorporated, The
- : New York Review of Books, Incorporated, The
- : 1.23
- : January 2001
- : 210mm X 140mm X 67mm
- : United States
- : books
Special Fields
- : Robert Burton
- : Paperback
- : New edition
- : 828.308
- : 1392
- : Essays, journals, letters & other prose works; Psychology