"Thanks to his wonderful memory, everything he read was stored up for use or ornament, till his mind resembled a huge curiosity shop."
— Long, William Joseph (1867-1952)
Work Title
Place of Publication
Boston
Publisher
Published by Ginn and Company
Date
1909
Metaphor
"Thanks to his wonderful memory, everything he read was stored up for use or ornament, till his mind resembled a huge curiosity shop."
Metaphor in Context
Robert Burton (1577-1640). Burton is famous chiefly as the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, one of the most astonishing books in all literature, which appeared in 1621. Burton was a clergyman of the Established Church, an incomprehensible genius, given to broodings and melancholy and to reading of every conceivable kind of literature. Thanks to his wonderful memory, everything he read was stored up for use or ornament, till his mind resembled a huge curiosity shop. All his life he suffered from hypochondria, but curiously traced his malady to the stars rather than to his own liver. It is related of him that he used to suffer so from despondency that no help was to be tound in medicine or theology; his only relief was to go down to the river and hear the bargemen swear at one another.
(p. 228)
Categories
Provenance
Googling "His mind resembled"
Citation
Long, William Joseph (1867-1952). English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-speaking World: a Text-book for Schools. Boston: Published by Ginn and Company, 1909. <Link to Google Books Edition>
Date of Entry
03/16/2009
