Bettie's Books

So I missed the one I was waiting for, the abridged radio thingie that Moxy describes so well here, however, there is a discussion about Burton's original on R4 today and here is the blurb and the listen link:R4 In Our Time :The Anatomy of Melancholy : Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's book The Anatomy of Melancholy.blurbs Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy.In 1621 the priest and scholar Robert Burton published a book quite unlike any other. The Anatomy of Melancholy brings together almost two thousand years of scholarship, from Ancient Greek philosophy to seventeenth-century medicine. Melancholy, a condition believed to be caused by an imbalance of the body's four humours, was characterised by despondency, depression and inactivity. Burton himself suffered from it, and resolved to compile an authoritative work of scholarship on the malady, drawing on all relevant sources.Despite its subject matter the Anatomy is an entertaining work, described by Samuel Johnson as the only book 'that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise.' It also offers a fascinating insight into seventeenth-century medical theory, and influenced many generations of playwrights and poets.With:Julie Sanders Professor of English Literature and Drama at the University of NottinghamMary Ann Lund Lecturer in English at the University of LeicesterErin Sullivan Lecturer and Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham.Producer: Thomas Morris.Really interesting programme and if I ever catch hold of this book (and it doesn't flatten me with its weight) I'd like to investigate those sections about The Happy Melancholic and The Religious Melancholic.