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Lead book review

An interest in the bizarre helps keep melancholy at bay

Philip Hensher finds Robert Burton’s perception of the world and the human condition endlessly fascinating

7 August 2021

9:00 AM

7 August 2021

9:00 AM

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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