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Title: The Anatomy of Melancholy (New York Review Books Classics) by Robert Burton, William H. Gass, Holbrook Jackson ISBN: 0-940322-66-8 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 09 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "A rhapsody of rags."
Comment: Don't be misled by the title of this book, nor by what others may have told you about it. In the first place, it isn't so much a book about 'Melancholy' (or abnormal psychology, or depression, or whatever) as a book about Burton himself and, ultimately, about humankind. Secondly, it isn't so much a book for students of the history of English prose, as one for lovers of language who joy in the strong taste of English when it was at its most masculine and vigorous. Finally, it isn't so much a book for those interested in the renaissance, as for those interested in life.
Burton is not a writer for fops and milquetoasts. He was a crusty old devil who used to go down to the river to listen to the bargemen cursing so that he could keep in touch with the true tongue of his race. Sometimes I think he might have been better off as the swashbuckling Captain of a pirate ship. But somehow he ended up as a scholar, and instead of watching the ocean satisfyingly swallowing up his victims, he himself became an ocean of learning swallowing up whole libraries. His book, in consequence, although it may have begun as a mere 'medical treatise,' soon exploded beyond its bounds to become, in the words of one of his editors, "a grand literary entertainment, as well as a rich mine of miscellaneous learning."
Of his own book he has this to say : "... a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, phantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet, ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess all..." But don't believe him, he's in one of his irascible moods and exaggerating. In fact it's a marvelous book.
Here's a bit more of the crusty Burton I love; it's on his fellow scholars : "Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers."
And here is Burton warming to the subject of contemporary theologians : "Theologasters, if they can but pay ... proceed to the very highest degrees. Hence it comes that such a pack of vile buffoons, ignoramuses wandering in the twilight of learning, ghosts of clergymen, itinerant quacks, dolts, clods, asses, mere cattle, intrude with unwashed feet upon the sacred precincts of Theology, bringing with them nothing save brazen impudence, and some hackneyed quillets and scholastic trifles not good enough for a crowd at a street corner."
Finally a passage I can't resist quoting which shows something of Burton's prose at its best, though I leave you to guess the subject: "... with this tempest of contention the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to their own destruction."
To fully appreciate these quotations you would have to see them in context, and I'm conscious of having touched on only one of his many moods and aspects. But a taste for Burton isn't difficult to acquire. He's a mine of curious learning. When in full stride he can be very funny, and it's easy to share his feelings as he often seems to be describing, not so much his own world as today's.
But he does demand stamina. His prose overwhelms and washes over us like a huge tsunami, and for that reason he's probably best taken in small doses. If you are unfamiliar with his work and were to approach him with that in mind, you might find that (as is the case with Montaigne, a very different writer) you had discovered not so much a book as a companion for life.
Rating: 5
Summary: No booklover should skip this one -- in its best edition.
Comment: Of all the editions of THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY that have ever been published, this may be the best for the general reader. The NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS CLASSIC edition wisely reprints the great 1932 Everyman's Library edition, with its wonderful introduction by the noted bookman Holbrook Jackson. (Readers are advised to skim or skip the rather pretentious new introduction by William H. Gass.)
Unlike the "all-English" edition referenced..., the Everyman/NYRBClassic edition gives the Latin tags as Burton scattered them through his work and translates each and every one, either in brackets immediately afterward, or (sometimes) in an endnote to each of the three volumes (now bound as one). I've tried to read the "all-English" edition, and it's disappointing, because it turns out that Burton wanted readers to read the Latin tags whether they could understand them or not. He included their syllables in the rhythm of his prose, so as you read this edition, you can almost hear him quote, then translate, then continue onward.
No booklover should skip this one, and this is the edition to have.
Rating: 5
Summary: Occult Psychology wrapped within classic literature
Comment: This book is quite interesting because it holds within its many pages a teaching that is deeper than what it may seem. There is a deep psychological teaching that mixes itself with high spiritual principles, esoteric Christian Gnosticism in its raw form, and countless viels that keep such things hidden from the eyes of the average literary scholar... Why would Burton write in such a way? The same reason Dante did...
But what is it that Burton is trying to show us, with his quotes from the Alchemical Master Galen and Latin stanzas?
Why must we understand the "Anatomy of Meloncholy"? The anatomy of our own suffering and the suffering of the world...
The Master M refers to Burton in his books of Occult Mysticism.
For us, as common "modern westerners", to understand such esoteric psychology-and not have to learn Latin, Tibetan, Sanskrit or Chinese, we must study the books of SAMAEL AUN WEOR. He writes in such a way as to unveil those truly hidden mysteries: "Know thyself and thy shall Know the universe and all its Gods".
Find the book of "Revolutionary Psychology" or "The Perfect Matrimony" by the said author. These books are amazing supplements to books like Burton's. These books give the western student a strong foundation in the psychological aspect of Occultism. SAMAEL AUN WEOR's books can be a bit difficult (to find), as they are continuously being translated from the original language (Spanish). Yet they can be bought from any Gnostic Institute (www.gnosticinstitute.org).
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Title: Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (New York Review of Books Classics) by Daniel Paul Schreber, Ida Macalpine, Richard A. Hunter, Anne Barton, Rosemary Dinnage ISBN: 094032220X Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton ISBN: 0486421163 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 07 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Journey to Mauritius (Lost & Found Classic Travel Writing) by Bernardin De Saint-Pierre, Bernardin De Saint-Pierre, Jason Wilson ISBN: 1566564476 Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva by Jennifer Radden ISBN: 0195151658 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Paul and Virginia by Bernardin De Saint Pierre, Bernardin de Saint Pierre ISBN: 1404323996 Publisher: Indypublish.Com Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.99 |
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