Matthew Bell is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at King's College London. His main areas of research are eighteenth-century literature and thought, and the history of the human sciences. He is the author of The German Tradition of Psychology in Literature and Thought, 1700-1840 (Cambridge, 2005).

'Matthew Bell's knowledge of Western historical and cultural traditions is far-reaching, deep, and employed to great advantage in this compelling book. His account of the place of melancholy within these traditions, and its links to self-consciousness, are original and provocative, making Melancholia: The Western Malady a worthy successor and complement to earlier writing such as Jackson's great Melancholia and Depression.' Jennifer H. Radden, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Boston

• Introduction; 1. Naming a disease; 2. What's wrong with me?; 3. Melancholy men, depressed women?; 4. The Western malady; 5. The telescope of truth; Conclusion.

Matthew Bell is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at King's College London. His main areas of research are eighteenth-century literature and thought, and the history of the human sciences. He is the author of The German Tradition of Psychology in Literature and Thought, 1700-1840 (Cambridge, 2005).

'Matthew Bell's knowledge of Western historical and cultural traditions is far-reaching, deep, and employed to great advantage in this compelling book. His account of the place of melancholy within these traditions, and its links to self-consciousness, are original and provocative, making Melancholia: The Western Malady a worthy successor and complement to earlier writing such as Jackson's great Melancholia and Depression.' Jennifer H. Radden, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Boston

• Introduction; 1. Naming a disease; 2. What's wrong with me?; 3. Melancholy men, depressed women?; 4. The Western malady; 5. The telescope of truth; Conclusion.