Book Description
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.


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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, numbers, and subsections. Philosophically, medicinally, Historically, opened and cut up.


From the Publisher
This edition retains the original Latin, while providing bracketed English translations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton￯﾿ﾽs 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 ￯﾿ﾽthe greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing,￯﾿ﾽ 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￯﾿ﾽs spectacular verbal labyrinth is sure to delight, instruct, and divert today￯﾿ﾽs readers as much as it has those of the past four centuries.

FROM THE CRITICS

Nicholas Lezard - The Guardian (London)

Paperback not so much of the week as of the year, of the decade - or, I am inclined to say, of all time. And why? Because it's the best book ever written, that's why. I use the word "book" with care. It's not a novel, a tract, an epic poem, a history; it is, quite self-consciously, the book to end all books.... And not only that, but it's useful: it makes you less melancholy. So buy it now.

Booknews

This work is cited in Books for College Libraries, 3d ed.. It is one of the major documents of modern European civilization, a survey not only of melancholy in all its myriad forms, but also of humanity's endless efforts to assuage it. First published in 1621, the book was an immediate popular success. The New York Review Books edition was edited by Holbrook Jackson in 1932. This new edition contains a new introduction by William Gass, director of the International Writer's Center. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

All I can say is that most modern books weary me, but Burton never does... His writing is like talk, learned but earthy, and once he starts, he is hard to stop... That he was a humorist in our sense of the word we need no biographical facts to attest: The Anatomy of Melancholy is, by a magnificent and somehow very English irony, one of the great comic works of the world.  — Anthony Burgess