Interesting Pynchon Mention

[Steve Maas]

In his review of Andrew Solomon’s _The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of 
Depression_ (January 6, 2002, LA Times Book Review), reviewer Patrick Giles 
says:

"17th century England (to start in the middle of the journey) was the summit 
of melancholy creation.  John Donne's poetry and his fierce argument over 
the efficacy of suicide compete in plangency with the prose masterwork of 
the heavy-hearted, Robert Burton's _The Anatomy of Melancholy_.  Solomon 
gives this book far too little homage: It is in fact a staggering triumph of 
education and artistry, at once a treatise on the medical, historical, 
philosophical and spiritual aspects of melancholy, a pep talk for fellow 
sufferers and a meta-fictional challenge leagues more daunting than any 
Melville or Thomas Pynchon crafted centuries later."

Anyone here ever read Burton?

     Steve Maas

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