In it Burton describes his plans to improve living conditions generally, so that there will be less discontent. The very long preface (entitled ‘Democritus Junior to the reader’) is, in some respects, more interesting than the book itself. The publisher was able to buy an estate from the proceeds. In spite of the author's doubts about the book, its generally gloomy tone, its inordinate length, and its innumerable quotations from the works of poets, divines, philosophers and the Bible, the Anatomy of Melancholy was a great success, running to eight editions over half a century. ![]() He hoped that, by writing the book, his own melancholy might be relieved, but apparently this did not prove to be the case. It is unlikely that a depressed person would be helped by the book, and Burton warns such a person “not to read this tract of symptoms, lest he become more melancholy than he was before”. ![]() “Whosoever you may be, I caution you against rashly defaming the author of this book… for should Democritus Junior prove to be what he professes, it is all over for you he will become both accuser and judge of you in your spleen, will dissipate you in jests, pulverise you into salt, and sacrifice you, I promise you, to the god of Mirth.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |