Overview

A User's Guide to Melancholy takes Robert Burton's encyclopaedic masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy (first published in 1621) as a guide to one of the most perplexing, elusive, attractive, and afflicting diseases of the Renaissance. Burton's Anatomy is perhaps the largest, strangest, and most unwieldy self-help book ever written. Engaging with the rich cultural and literary framework of melancholy, this book traces its causes, symptoms, and cures through Burton's writing. Each chapter starts with a case study of melancholy - from the man who was afraid to urinate in case he drowned his town to the girl who purged a live eel - as a way into exploring the many facets of this mental affliction. A User's Guide to Melancholy presents in an accessible and illustrated format the colourful variety of Renaissance melancholy, and contributes to contemporary discussions about wellbeing by revealing the earlier history of mental health conditions.

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9781108838849

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Reviews

'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Bethlem Museum of the Mind

'I didn't think it possible for my favourite book to be summarised, and analysed, and explained so well. Mary Ann Lund has done Burton a great service, and us readers too, whether or not we've embarked on the wide and turbulent sea of his prose. What I found particularly enlightening was the author's examination of other texts, ancient and medieval and from Burton's own time, about this endlessly absorbing subject, and the perspective she reveals on the condition of melancholy from a modern viewpoint. Burton is inexhaustible and irreplaceable, of course, but this delightfully written and brilliantly informative guide is the best introduction to this great book I have ever seen. I hope it has a great success, and remains in print for four hundred years.' Philip Pullman 'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Bethlem Museum of the Mind 'A truly fascinating historical journey through an extraordinary range of mental health experiences. Full of captivating descriptions, with Mary Ann Lund the perfect engaging and enlightening guide.' Daniel Freeman, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Presenter of BBC Radio 4's A History of Delusions 'A rich and fascinating tour through the territory of melancholy in seventeenth-century England and beyond. Lund provides an expert but very readable introduction to Burton's masterpiece, and her entertaining exploration of the cultural resonances of the Anatomy's medical, psychological, and literary subject matter also prompts us to think seriously about the lasting historical legacies of those who wrote about and struggled with melancholy in the past.' Angus Gowland, Reader in Intellectual History, University College London

'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Bethlem Museum of the Mind 'I didn't think it possible for my favourite book to be summarised, and analysed, and explained so well. Mary Ann Lund has done Burton a great service, and us readers too, whether or not we've embarked on the wide and turbulent sea of his prose. What I found particularly enlightening was the author's examination of other texts, ancient and medieval and from Burton's own time, about this endlessly absorbing subject, and the perspective she reveals on the condition of melancholy from a modern viewpoint. Burton is inexhaustible and irreplaceable, of course, but this delightfully written and brilliantly informative guide is the best introduction to this great book I have ever seen. I hope it has a great success, and remains in print for four hundred years.' Philip Pullman 'A truly fascinating historical journey through an extraordinary range of mental health experiences. Full of captivating descriptions, with Mary Ann Lund the perfect engaging and enlightening guide.' Daniel Freeman, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Presenter of BBC Radio 4's A History of Delusions 'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Director of Bethlem Museum of the Mind 'A rich and fascinating tour through the territory of melancholy in seventeenth-century England and beyond. Lund provides an expert but very readable introduction to Burton's masterpiece, and her entertaining exploration of the cultural resonances of the Anatomy's medical, psychological, and literary subject matter also prompts us to think seriously about the lasting historical legacies of those who wrote about and struggled with melancholy in the past.' Angus Gowland, Reader in Intellectual History, University College London

'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Bethlem Museum of the Mind 'I didn't think it possible for my favourite book to be summarised, and analysed, and explained so well. Mary Ann Lund has done Burton a great service, and us readers too, whether or not we've embarked on the wide and turbulent sea of his prose. What I found particularly enlightening was the author's examination of other texts, ancient and medieval and from Burton's own time, about this endlessly absorbing subject, and the perspective she reveals on the condition of melancholy from a modern viewpoint. Burton is inexhaustible and irreplaceable, of course, but this delightfully written and brilliantly informative guide is the best introduction to this great book I have ever seen. I hope it has a great success, and remains in print for four hundred years.' Philip Pullman 'A truly fascinating historical journey through an extraordinary range of mental health experiences. Full of captivating descriptions, with Mary Ann Lund the perfect engaging and enlightening guide.' Daniel Freeman, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Presenter of BBC Radio 4's A History of Delusions 'A rich and fascinating tour through the territory of melancholy in seventeenth-century England and beyond. Lund provides an expert but very readable introduction to Burton's masterpiece, and her entertaining exploration of the cultural resonances of the Anatomy's medical, psychological, and literary subject matter also prompts us to think seriously about the lasting historical legacies of those who wrote about and struggled with melancholy in the past.' Angus Gowland, Reader in Intellectual History, University College London

'At last there is an accessible way into Robert Burton's labyrinthine masterpiece! Dr Lund has distilled all the wit, recondite learning and human empathy of The Anatomy of Melancholy into this wonderful guide.' Colin Gale, Bethlem Museum of the Mind

Author Information

Mary Ann Lund is Associate Professor in Renaissance English Literature at the University of Leicester. She is the author of Melancholy, Medicine, and Religion in Early Modern England: Reading 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' (Cambridge University Press, 2010) which was shortlisted for the CCUE Book Prize. She has contributed to the BBC Radio 4 series: In Our Time on The Anatomy of Melancholy (2011), The Glass Delusion (2015), and A History of Delusions (2018). She was an AHRC Leadership Fellow (2015-17) and edited The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne: Vol. 12 (2018).

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