Skeptical and Natural PhilosophyMedicine and Philosophy |
What was the reaction to Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy? |
Burton wrote The Anatomy of Melancholy under the pseudonym “Democritus Junior.” His book was well-received. Literary historian and critic Thomas Warton (1728–1790) wrote of it: “The author’s variety of learning, his quotations from rare and curious books, his pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance … have rendered it a repertory of amusement and information.” Indeed, Burton’s treatise is full of satire and it constitutes a prodigious display of historical and literary knowledge.