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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 The Anatomy of Melancholy #170227 09/27/07 06:15 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 I ordered The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton a few weeks ago and today it finally arrived. At over 1000-odd pages, it is the thickest book I have ever seen; almost as thick as it is wide! Anyone ever read it? I take the long, long plunge, starting this afternoon. I'll get back to you in a couple of months. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Hydra #170235 09/27/07 07:59 PM Joined: Jul 2005 Posts: 1,773 Apple Valley, CA, USA D dalehileman Pooh-Bah dalehileman Pooh-Bah D Joined: Jul 2005 Posts: 1,773 Apple Valley, CA, USA Hydra, please do dalehileman Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Hydra #170239 09/28/07 01:44 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky almost as thick as it is wide! Whew--musta had a heck of a s/h charge! Good luck, and hope you come up for air now and then. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Jackie #170474 10/07/07 06:50 PM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Well looky here. (And here). It's amazing just how many books are now available on-line. But is anybody actually reading them? I don't think I could read a book that way. Last edited by Hydra; 10/07/07 06:54 PM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Hydra #170477 10/07/07 08:52 PM Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 956 Auckland, New Zealand olly old hand olly old hand Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 956 Auckland, New Zealand For those of you so inclined. Sometimes the screenplay can give an insight into a movie that is missed onscreen. Although this is a precursor to the final screenplay I find it interesting that the written word still conveys much more than a picture. 2001 Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy olly #171092 11/02/07 09:08 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 I finished The Anatomy on Oct 30 and discovered (with both interest and annoyance) that all the obscure words I'd had to Google were glossed at the back. Here is a small sampling of Burton's more interesting abstrusities, put case anyone has an interest: Quote: calaminstrate: to curl the hair with tongs circumforanean: strolling from market to market cornute: to cuckold dummerer: a feigner of dumbness goosecap: a silly person lusorious: appertaining to games mard: a lump of excremental matter obnubilate: obscure; cloud otacousticon: an ear trumpet pickitivant: a pointed beard pittivanted: wearing a pointed beard salvatella: the vein that runs into the little finger terriculaments: terrors vastity: desolation wreeks: pranks wittol: a man who is aware and tolerant of his wife's infidelity; an acquiescent cuckold. pickthank: a flatterer Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Hydra #171111 11/02/07 10:21 PM Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 2,891 B belMarduk Carpal Tunnel belMarduk Carpal Tunnel B Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 2,891 So Hydra, Was it a good read? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy belMarduk #171112 11/03/07 01:21 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Quote: Paperback not so much of the week as of the year, of the decade—or, I am inclined to say, of all time. And why? Because it's the best book ever written, that's why. —Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian. Quote: The Anatomy of Melancholy is one of the great comic books of the world. —Anthony Burgess. Quote: One of the maddest and most perfectly paranoid, obsessively organized, etceterative assaults on the feeble human powers of concentration ever attempted. —Angus Fletcher. This is high praise, and I would go even further, with one qualification. The Anatomy is really three books in one (or four if you include the book-length Prologue): a First, Second and Third "Partition". The first Partition, on the symptoms of melancholy, is truly wonderful stuff. Burton is as bookish as they come, and has basically concertinaed the entire contents of a 17th-century library. Here you meet ghouls, fairybabes, changelings; cynanthropes frothing at the mouth, madmen, bedlam, philtres, men who try to dry puddles with their mind, men who die of thirst from fear of a black dog reflected in water, monks convinced they are damned to hell and are followed by black dogs... etc., etc., all couched in a most wonderfully verbose, expansive, telescopic, highfalutin prose—De Quincey on steroids. And methamphetamine. After 96 hours without sleep. But that doesn't quite do it justice either. As William Gass writes in the intro: "Burton the ranter rants. It is delicious." The second Partition, which treats of cures, was hard work. A lot (and I mean a lot) of pages on the humours, phlebotomy, herbs, diet, exercise, air, etc., etc., etc. Things pick up a little in the third Partition, which deals with Love Melancholy (both romantic and religious) and finally treats of symptoms and cures—but it doesn't quite touch the first partition. That said, I thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) recommend this book, its unspeakable contents, and their promulgator, the inimitable Robert Burton. What are you waiting for? If you don't like it, I will personally reimburse you. My money is safe. Last edited by Hydra; 11/03/07 01:31 AM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy Hydra #171120 11/04/07 09:29 AM Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 Netherlands, the Hague BranShea Carpal Tunnel BranShea Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 Netherlands, the Hague Can't. Suffer from semipoeticmelancholophobia. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: The Anatomy of Melancholy BranShea #171121 11/04/07 10:28 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra OP addict OP Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Oh, Burton devotes 36 pages to the cure for that. Last edited by Hydra; 11/04/07 10:28 AM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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