The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy

by Robert Burton

English churchman and scholar Robert Burton (1576–1639) was a passionate student of medicine, history, literature, and science — the whole of human knowledge. He was also a witty, pedantic, and eloquent genius, who devoted the major part of his life to writing The Anatomy of Melancholy, one of the richest, most inexhaustible books in the English language. Ostensibly an elaborately systematized medical treatise dealing with various morbid mental states — their causes, symptoms, and cures — the Anatomy is much a compendium of memorable utterances on the human condition in general, compiled from classical, scholastic, and contemporary sources. For this edition, the editors carefully selected those passages containing the most psychological and general interest, eliminating a good deal of nonessential material, but retaining the incomparable wit, eccentric charm, imagination, and richness of thought of the original. In short, readers will find here the essence of Burton's vast book — the passages which, according to W. H. D. Rouse, reveal the author's "eternal freshness, his own ingenuous interest, [and] his boyish delight in a good story."

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

Robert Burton was an English scholar, born in 1577. Entered Brasenose College, Oxford, 1593. Student of Christ Church, 1599; B.D., 1614 and Vicar of St. Thomas's, Oxford, 1616, and rector of Seagrave from 1630 until his death in 1640. Best known for writing The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Reviews

[Charles Rouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't the whole book, which I understand is huge, but has what the editors believe will interest us moderns. It's certainly large enough. It's everything the description says it is; it's really quite amazing. The preface is by W.H.D. Rouse, a classicist who is no relation, as far as I know.
The cover is an etching of "Melancholia," by Albrecht Durer. Melancholia is what we would call depression, or clinical depression, but Robert Burton uses that simple definition as a stepping off point for a discussion of the vast troubles and worries of mankind, stopping or usually stopping at the point of actual madness.
I picked up the book and started reading, thinking I should, if I'm going to consider myself as well read, which was important to me at one time. I couldn't stop reading till I finished it. Some of it is sad, some hugely interesting, some inspiring- his essay on Christianity is brilliant.
Among other things, this book is a great example of the best English of his time, around 1600 and a little later. Great stories, some of them probably true, great point of view for his time and his people, the zeitgeist of the educated English in the early 1600's . We would recognize some of this and some is genuinely a foreign country, the land of our ancestors. Recommended, can get dark in places, so if you're depressed, take your medication while looking at this.

[Seppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book of encyclopedic nature. Often more talked about than read I presume. Giving it less stars due to it being an abridged version. Being a third of the original work, it is a good essential reading to try out some of Burtons life work.

In an early modern fashion, Burton systematizes ideas on the causes, symptoms and cures for melancholy. He bundles ancient, scholastic and modern ideas on mental malady, mostly what one could call depression nowadays, but it is rather a broad range of psychic phenomena. Witty and lucid in a typical Elisabethean prose it is great read, a counterpart of his contemporary Shakespeare.

Mixing medicine, philosophy, philology and the arts the core is an exercise in ethics, how one could live with tragedy and distress. Like the ancient ethicists he makes way to discuss habits of exercise, eating, sleeping, and how to care for ones mind as a sedentary scholar (as he was himself). Hearsay and science are intertwined, which is often comical.
The abridged version consists of the causes of melancholy, the potential cures and a whole chapter on the melancholy of love, which is an engaging choice.

Although the topic would seem rather heartfelt or pessimistic, Burton writes in a joyous and jocular fashion, and to me with an endless sense of wonder about the human nature. He could be counted as one of the early modern humanists, some kind of prototype of a handbook on mental malady. The full version ofcourse opens this up way more.

[Daniel Wright]

The Anatomy of Melancholy

[Don Gubler · Rating 2 out of 5]

A scholar is only as good as his sources. This is exhaustively written and exhausting to read. There is more paranormal and religious input than scientific. It really is much, much ado about nothing. Also 20% is footnotes. This is the second most footnotes I've ever seen. (thousands)

[Meemsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

DO NOT ORDER THIS EDITION
seems it was formatted with ai
819 "footnotes" tucked into the back of the book
so ugly and illogical formatted the reading became a slog
fuck this edition as this would have been something special

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A superstitious man you see:
He fasts, prays, on his Idol fixt,
Tormented hope and fear betwixt:
For Hell perhaps he takes more pain,
Than thou dost Heaven itself to gain.
Alas poor soul, I pity thee,
What stars incline thee so to be?"
p. xvii