Ill at Ease: Writers on Ailments Real and Imagined
Enright, D. J., ed.
Genre: Anthology (Mixed Genres)
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Annotated by:
- Duffin, Jacalyn
- Date of entry: Jun-28-1999
Summary
An engaging anthology of writings about illness, from over 330 sources, literary and medical, men and women, ranging from Deuteronomy and Hippocrates to Virginia Woolf and Oliver Sacks. Readable explication introduces the chapters devoted to various themes, a list of which will serve best to illustrate the scope.
1. Generalities; 2. Illnesses (greater and lesser); 3. Eyes, Ears and Teeth; 4. Doctors and Cures; 5. Hospitals and Patients; 6. Philosophers and Kings; 7. Intellectual and Spiritual Frets; 8. Strange Complaints, Mishaps, Embarrassments; 9. Imaginary, Feigned, Psychological; 10. Melancholy and Love Sickness; 11. Manias, Phobias, Fantasies, Fears; 12. Breakdown and Madness; 13. Young and Old; 14. Animals; 15. Invalids and Convalescents; 16. Short and Sharp (a collection of pithy aphorisms about illness).
Miscellaneous
Publisher
Faber & Faber
Place Published
London
Edition
1989
Editor
D. J. (Dennis Joseph) Enright
Page Count
365
Commentary
A useful collection for writers and teachers, edited by an erudite professor of English whose more than thirty book-length publications include poetry, novels, numerous works of literary criticism, and several editions for Oxford University Press, including The Oxford Book of Death (1983). The excerpts are all clearly labeled with the title and year of publication, a style that enables users to find the full reference easily. A complete index of the more than 330 authors and 19 anonymous sources helps to target specific writers or particular periods.