# Robert Burton -The Anatomy of Melancholy



## Mayflower (Apr 26, 2008)

Is anyone familiar with : Robert Burton -The Anatomy of Melancholy ?

Does it gives a good biblical explanation and help for Melancholy ?

Is it as great as the book of Timothy Rogers - Trouble of mind and the disease of Melancholy ?


----------



## VirginiaHuguenot (Apr 26, 2008)

Mayflower said:


> Is anyone familiar with : Robert Burton -The Anatomy of Melancholy ?
> 
> Does it gives a good biblical explanation and help for Melancholy ?
> 
> Is it as great as the book of Timothy Rogers - Trouble of mind and the disease of Melancholy ?



I've generally seen Burton described as an "anti-Puritan." I have not read the work although it is online here:

The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it ... - Google Book Search
Robert Burton (scholar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The Anatomy of Melancholy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think you would be better off reading Timothy Rogers or Joseph Symonds, among others I listed recently on this subject.

http://www.puritanboard.com/f118/trouble-mind-disease-melancholy-timothy-rogers-31591/


----------



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Apr 26, 2008)

I am in need of such a book. Thanks for this discussion. I'll definitely pick up Rogers book.


----------



## bookslover (Apr 26, 2008)

I have two editions of this book: (1) a reprint published in 1938 by Tudor Publishing Company in New York; a hardback of 1,036 pages; and (2) a paperback edition published by the New York Review of Books imprint in 2001, with 1,382 pages.

Robert Burton (born: Lindley, England on February 8, 1577; died: Oxford, England on January 25, 1640, aged 62) "was born in Leicestershire and educated at Oxford [BD, 1614] where he became librarian of Christ's Church College, a position he held for life. He was also the [Anglican] vicar of St. Thomas, Oxford, and rector of Seabrave, Leicestershire. The first edition of _The Anatomy of Melancholy_ appeared in 1621 and was an immediate popular success. Burton continued to revise and add to this great book, which went through a further five editions, until his death." (Quoting from the paperback version.)

Continuing: "One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton's outstanding compendium, a survey not only of melancholy in all its myriad forms but also of humanity's endless efforts to assuage it, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the early seventeenth century. Llewelyn Powys called it "the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing," while the celebrated surgeon Sir Willian Osler pronounced it one of the very greatest of medical treatises. And Dr. Johnson, Boswell reports, declared it was "the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise."

I haven't read all of it, but I've read in it. In the same way that Joseph Caryl's 12-volume commentary on the Book of Job explores every nook and cranny of Scripture and ranges over the entirety of systematic theology while expositing Job, so Burton's book ranges over a vast number of subjects and personages throughout history in its explanation and description of cures for depression (melancholia).

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, the greatest literary critic and author of the 18th century), again: "Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ is a valuable work. It is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he writes from his own mind." The book had been through 5 editions by Burton's death (1640); it had been through 9 editions by Johnson's day.

Today, one would read the book mostly for entertainment, what with the advances in modern science regarding the treatment of depression. Yet, I would not be surprised to see some practical advice that is still valid.

On the subject of _spiritual_ depression, I'd recommend _Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure_ by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965). It's based on a series of sermons Lloyd-Jones preached on this subject at Westminster Chapel in the early 1950s, and it's still in print.


----------



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Apr 28, 2008)

Backwoods Presbyterian said:


> I am in need of such a book. Thanks for this discussion. I'll definitely pick up Rogers book.



Picked it up from the PTS library today. Great stuff so far (pg. 7)


----------

