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The Anatomy of Melancholy
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 56 hrs and 49 mins
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The Anatomy of Melancholy
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Summary
The Anatomy of Melancholy is one of the most remarkable books ever written. First published in 1621, and hardly ever out of print since, it is a huge, varied, idiosyncratic, entertaining and learned survey of the experience of melancholy, seen from just about every possible angle that could be imagined. Its subtitle explains much: The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of It. In Three Maine Partitions with their Several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up. But despite the subtitle’s length, it does not do justice to the immense scope of the study. Nor to its oddness.
Robert Burton (1577-1640) was an Oxford scholar, a vicar and a mathematician with a stupendously wide reading habit which was supported by an exceptional memory: he remembered virtually everything he read. However, throughout his life he suffered from depression and was therefore able to bring personal experience to what could have been a dry, if gargantuan academic study. According to traditional medicine, accepted generally by Jacobeans, melancholy was caused by ‘black bile’. But for Burton psychology underpinned all.
He divides his book into three Partitions. In 'The First Partition' he looks at causes of melancholy. He addresses diet (good and bad) and appetite; he considers witches and magicians; he surveys any number of physical maladies from ‘phrenzy’ to ‘lycanthropia’. The soul – sensible and rational – is investigated; the passions (envy, malice, anger, discontent, covetousness, love of gaming, pride, overmuch joy) are intricately examined. 'The Second Partition' is dedicated to ‘The Cure of Melancholy’, and Burton discusses physical issues and social positions, while dealing meticulously with such emotional states as envy, ambition, self-love and more. 'The Third Partition' is dedicated to an examination of ‘Love-Melancholy’: beauty, lust, music, amorous tales, bawds – and also religious melancholy.
All this hardly reflects the experience of listening to The Anatomy of Melancholy. Burton’s fertile and curious mind dips here, there and everywhere. Classical references abound; the text teems with obscure references to scientists, doctors, philosophers, writers, musicians and politicians from all ages. They are invariably fascinating and in some cases astounding. He is equally fluent in investigating the diaphragm, the pleura, the vena cava, the bladder, the gall and the spleen as he is in acknowledging the role of hypochondria and psychosomatic ailments. In one sentence he refers to the excess habits of Alcibiades, in the next he is evoking Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. In fact quotations from Chaucer and Shakespeare, Juvenal, Lucretius, the Bible, Ariosto and Virgil tumble over one another in a glorious cornucopia.
This great text, a monument to English knowledge and invention, once approached is never forgotten. It has informed, delighted and infuriated generations of great men of all disciplines (including Samuel Johnson) down the centuries. It must also be acknowledged that it is as challenging a task to record as exists in English literature. Peter Wickham, no stranger to tough texts, proves undaunted by it: he brings Robert Burton magnificently to the 21st century ear, rendering the Jacobean language, the abstruse references and the unbelievable detail, with a remarkable ease and familiarity.
The Anatomy of Melancholy, presented here with all the original quotations in English, is, at last, available on audiobook in its entirety. An accompanying PDF is available with this recording, presenting the famous frontispiece which opens the work and Burton’s verse explanation of it: 'The Argument of the Frontispiece'. Also included are the 'Contents' in full form, giving a helpful overview of this unique and detailed book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
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What listeners say about The Anatomy of Melancholy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mrs
- 28-10-20
DAMN GOOD BOOK
A wonderfully sardonic yet affectionate dissection of human nature by Robert Burton who understands both our strengths and weaknesses profoundly. The second of three parts is dispensable -medically naive and needlessly padded. But you will never find a more honest humane and humorous accusing and forgiving , and unbelievably learned tour of the comedy and tragedy of human existence, overlooking the politically necessary inclusion of the truth of Gods existence. His examination of LOVE and the dance that men and women perform with each other , and the truth and depth of his description and awareness will leave you amazed. You will not forget the book.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Janet
- 07-08-21
A book I will come back to
All praise to Peter Wickham. What a tour de force. It is his voice and delivery that really make this audio book. I have loved listening to him pontificate whilst attempting my very amateur drawing and painting through lockdown.
This book will not suit everyone. Robert Burton lived from 1577 to 1640 so his ideas, beliefs and experiences are quite different to mine, but that is why it is so interesting. Many times I so wanted to tell him that, basically, science has overtaken superstition. However, as he repeatedly quotes from St Augustine, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen and others from ancient and medieval times, what gradually becomes apparent is that people are still fundamentally the same. As was then and is now we like to eat too much, don't like to exercise, blame others for our faults, expect our doctors to undo all the harm we have done to ourselves, and are afraid of the unknown. To avoid melancholy he advises us to get out and be active, and not to study too much. Not much change there then!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Zadzaczadlin
- 28-06-22
No proper chapter tagging
Burton's book is a masterpiece, and Wickham's reading is, as usual, faultless.
I just wish the editors has been a little braver, and kept the Latin quotations, instead of putting everything into English, thus removing so much of the book's original flavour.
I also wish the publisher had not simply numbered the tracks, but had tagged them with Burton's original subject-headings, as a guide for navigating through this massive composition.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-03-21
Excellent
An old, grumpy but wise man moaning about the world. Excellent performance. Good to sleep to.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-07-21
what a great tonic
the narrator sounded as soothing as a radio 4 thought for the day. what a marvellous gem this is.....at least 300 years ahead of its time for psychology....sociology.......philosophy....matrimony and so much more. an essential read for all i would say....and so well adapted. marvellous
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mikeep
- 18-07-20
A tremendous achievement
Peter Wickham delivers this marathon narration with aplomb in a brilliant performance that will bring Robert Burton's masterpiece to life for a new generation.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- amg1900
- 30-12-20
Brilliant narration of a rambling masterpiece
As Burton admits in his opening section, this is a book written straight from the author's head and heart, not polished or revised, even the quotations drawn from his astounding memory and therefore, charmingly, not always word perfect. But the effect, especially in the lively and intelligent reading of Peter Wickham, is that it is like being at the dinner table with Robert Burton himself - cheerful (oddly, given his subject), voluble, erudite, haphazard, and altogether charming. This is not so much a book as a crease in time, whereby Robert Burton comes straight into our lives as a dear old friend, wise, humane, endlessly interesting and entertaining.
Do not be deterred by the length - this is a book you can take in small or large chunks, just as the fancy takes you. It is not something to be got through. It is to be enjoyed like a warm bath, just for the experience. It cannot go on for too long. You will be sorry when it is over, because your friend will have gone home, and you will wish he was coming back again.
This is a book of its time but also for our time, with its objective, unbiassed examination of what we would now call mental health, and its timeless insight into that melancholy which Burton rightly identifies (from his voracious reading of over a thousand years of literature, starting with the Bible and the Ancients) as intrinsic to the human experience. Therefore it cannot age or date. It is describing us, as well as him; our contemporaries as well as his.
A ;great masterpiece whose time has come again and, in this reading, it has been made completely accessible. Since just one Audible credit will buy you all 56 hours, it is great value, too.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leah Lotous
- 29-01-22
Worthy of the looong hours
Astonishing narration.
The text gives a very good understanding of pre-industrial-revolution Western ideas about mental health and much much more.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- Eliza Kettner
- 26-02-24
A whole lot of nonsense
Some books really should be retired, such as this one. Yes, it’s curious to read something written such a long time ago but also very, very tiring. I lost my mojo when he got to recommending early marriage and phlebotomy to keep women from melancholy. Unless you’re doing historical research like I was, do not bother!
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