Anatomy of Melancholy

[Steve Maas]

I highly recommend _The Anatomy of Melancholy_ by Robert Burton. Having 
apparently led a childhood more sheltered than I realized, the book first 
entered my consciousness a year ago in a blurb on another book, which 
described Burton's book as "a meta-fictional challenge leagues more daunting 
than any Melville or Thomas Pynchon crafted centuries later." Despite the 
fact that that sentence means nothing to me, following some positive 
mentions on this list I've recently begun reading Burton's 17th-century 
masterpiece of the human condition. After only a small sample, his book has 
already earned my designation of undisputed non-fiction (sort of 
non-fiction, anyhow) "desert island" counterpart to GR. This sort of 
serendipitous discovery is exactly what keeps me coming back to the p-list 
trough for more, despite the unpleasantries unfortunately to be found here. 
Thanks all.

Steve Maas


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