The Anatomy of Melancholy
LC Class | PR2223 .A1 |
The Anatomy of Melancholy (full title: The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up) is a book by Robert Burton, first published in 1621,[1] but republished five more times over the next seventeen years with massive alterations and expansions.
Overview
On its surface, the book is presented as a medical textbook in which Burton applies his vast and varied learning, in the scholastic manner, to the subject of melancholia (or clinical depression). Although presented as a medical text, The Anatomy of Melancholy is as much a sui generis (unique) work of literature as it is a scientific or philosophical text, as Burton covers far more than the titular subject. Anatomy uses melancholy as a lens through which all human emotion and thought may be scrutinized, and virtually the entire contents of a 17th-century library are marshalled into service of this goal.[2] It is encyclopedic in its range and reference.
In his satirical preface to the reader, Burton's persona and pseudonym "Democritus Junior" explains, "I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy." This is characteristic of the author's style, which often supersedes the book's strengths as a medical text or historical document as its main source of appeal to admirers. Both satirical and serious in tone, the Anatomy is "vitalized by [Burton's] pervading humour",
Publication
Burton was an obsessive editor of his own work, publishing five revised and expanded editions of The Anatomy of Melancholy during his lifetime. It has often been out of print, particularly between 1676 and 1800.
Synopsis
Burton defined his subject as:
Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or in
humour, as Aurelianusand others call it, not errant, but fixed: and as it was long increasing, so, now being (pleasant or painful) grown to a habit, it will hardly be removed.
In expounding on his subject, Burton drew from nearly every science of his day, including psychology and physiology, but also astronomy, meteorology, theology, and even astrology and demonology.
Much of the book quotes[6] ancient and medieval medical authorities, beginning with Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hence the Anatomy is filled with more or less pertinent references to the works of others. A competent Latinist, Burton included a great deal of Latin poetry in the Anatomy, much of it from ancient sources left untranslated. Although his "citations" sound convincing, many are incorrect, taken out of context, or simply fabricated.[7]
The Anatomy of Melancholy is especially lengthy, the first edition being a single quarto volume nearly 900 pages long; subsequent editions were even longer.[8] The text has three major sections plus an introduction, written in Burton's sprawling style. Characteristically, the introduction includes not only an author's note (titled "Democritus Junior to the Reader"), but also a Latin poem ("Democritus Junior to His Book"), a warning to "The Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill", an abstract of the following text, and another poem explaining the frontispiece. The following three sections proceed in a similarly exhaustive fashion: the first section focuses on the causes and symptoms of "common" melancholies, the second section deals with cures for melancholy, and the third section explores more complex and esoteric melancholies, including the melancholy of lovers and all manner of religious melancholies. The Anatomy concludes with an extensive index (which The New York Times Book Review called "a readerly pleasure in itself"[9]). Most modern editions add explanatory notes and translate most of the Latin.[2]
Critical reception
Admirers of The Anatomy of Melancholy range from
Burton's solemn tone and his endeavour to prove indisputable facts by weighty quotations were ridiculed by Laurence Sterne in Tristram Shandy.[15][16] Sterne also mocked Burton's divisions in the titles of his chapters, and parodied his grave and sober account of Cicero's grief for the death of his daughter Tullia.[15]
Notes
- .
- ^ a b c d Nicholas Lezard (17 August 2001). "The Book to End All Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
- ^ Émile Legouis, A History of English Literature (1926)
- ^ The Complete Review discussion of The Anatomy of Melancholy
- ISBN 0-940322-66-8
- ^ "Introduction · the Anatomy of Melancholy · USU Digital Exhibits".
- .
- ^ Nuttall, A. D. (1989-11-23). "Joke Book?". London Review of Books. pp. 18–19.
- ^ Thomas Mallon, The New York Times Book Review, October 3, 1991
- PMC 1949452.
- ^ Pullman, Philip (2005-04-09). "Reasons to be cheerful".
- ^ McCrum, Robert (2017-12-18). "The 100 best nonfiction books: No 98 – the Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621)". The Guardian.
- ^ Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, 221–224.
- ^ Nick Lezard, "Classics of the Future", The Guardian, September 16, 2000.
- ^ a b Ferriar (1798), chapter 3, pp. 55–59, 64.
- ^ Petrie (1970) pp. 261–262.
References
- Ferriar, John (1798) Illustrations of Sterne
- Petrie, Graham (1970) A Rhetorical Topic in "Tristram Shandy", Modern Language Review, Vol. 65, No. 2, April 1970, pp. 261–66
Further reading
- Edward W. Adams (1896). "Robert Burton and the 'Anatomy of Melancholy'," The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. CCLXXXI, pp. 46–53
- William Monahan (Fall 2001). "Remedial Reading: The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton, introduction by William H. Gass". Bookforum. Retrieved 14 April 2007. The introduction by author William H. Gass runs just under 10 pages
- Mary Ann Lund (2010). "Melancholy, Medicine and Religion in Early Modern England: Reading The Anatomy of Melancholy". Cambridge University Press
- Susan Wells (2019). Robert Burton's Rhetoric: An Anatomy of Early Modern Knowledge. Pennsylvania State University Press
External links
Online editions
- The 1638 edition on Google Books
- The Anatomy of Melancholy at Project Gutenberg
- The Anatomy of Melancholy Online reading and multiple ebook formats at Ex-classics
- The Anatomy of Melancholy at Making of America
- The Anatomy of Melancholy at PsyPlexus
- The Anatomy of Melancholy at Internet Archive – scan of 1896 edition
- The Anatomy of Melancholy at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Discussions of the book
- "The Anatomy of Melancholy" In Our Time episode from BBC Radio 4
- The New Anatomy of Melancholy – BBC Radio 4 exploration and modern extrapolation
- The Complete Review discussion of The Anatomy of Melancholy