Tormented Hope
Darwin, Proust, Warhol and six others lived in fear of their own bodies. Dillon asks what that fear made of them.
Brian Dillon tells the stories of nine hypochondriacs: James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Alice James, Daniel Paul Schreber, Marcel Proust, Glenn Gould and Andy Warhol. Each was convinced, in their own way, that their body was failing them. Dillon uses their lives to trace how ideas about hypochondria changed over three centuries, and what the fear of illness did to their work.
Recommended by 1 Person
Louise Foxcroft
This is a great book. I think Brian Dillon is also very good at relating things to the personal. He looks with enormous insight at the idea of hypochondria – also an ancient notion.
Interview · May 2012
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