Philip Hensher

An interest in the bizarre helps keep melancholy at bay

For health of mind and body, Robert Burton recommends what his great work itself exemplifies: curiosity about every human peculiarity

Portrait of Burton by J. Nichols, after the bust on his grave at Christ Church, Oxford 
issue 07 August 2021
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  • The Anatomy of Melancholy

    Robert Burton, edited by Angus Gowland

    Penguin Classics, pp. 1376, £40

If you crush the right testicle of a wolf and administer it in oil or rose water it will induce a loathing for sex. The Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use no wine). The Chinese have no nobility, or only those philosophers and doctors who have raised themselves by their worth.

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