An Anatomy Of Melancholy

400 years after The Anatomy of Melancholy, this book guides readers through Renaissance medicine's disease of the mind.

One of the richest books in the English language, this systematized medical treatise on morbid mental states also features a compendium of memorable utterances on the human condition, compiled from classical, scholastic, and contemporary sources.

Amusing, touching, and unsettling, The Melancholy of Anatomy is that most wonderful of fictions, one that makes us see the world in an entirely new light. Here is the body turned inside out, its members set free, its humors released upon the world. Hearts bigger than planets devour light and warp the space around them; the city of London has a menstrual flow that gushes through its underground pipes; gobs of phlegm cement friendships and sexual relationships; and a floating fetus larger than a human becomes the new town pastor. In this debut story collection, Shelley Jackson rewrites our private passages, and translates the dumb show of the body into prose as gorgeous as it is unhygienic.

Anthology of a selection of early modern works on memory.

Lund demonstrates the significance of Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy within early modern literary culture, covering religious and medical issues.