The Cure of the Passions and the Origins of the English Novel [Hardcover]

This 2001 book examines the role of the passions in the rise of the English novel.This new study examines the role of the passions in the rise of the English novel. Geoffrey Sill examines medical, religious, and literary efforts to anatomize the passions, paying particular attention to the works of Dr Alexander Monro of Edinburgh, Reverend John Lewis of Margate, and Daniel Defoe, novelist and natural historian of the passions. He shows that the figure of the 'physician of the mind' figures prominently not only in Defoe's novels, but also in those of Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Burney, and Edgeworth.This new study examines the role of the passions in the rise of the English novel. Geoffrey Sill examines medical, religious, and literary efforts to anatomize the passions, paying particular attention to the works of Dr Alexander Monro of Edinburgh, Reverend John Lewis of Margate, and Daniel Defoe, novelist and natural historian of the passions. He shows that the figure of the 'physician of the mind' figures prominently not only in Defoe's novels, but also in those of Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Burney, and Edgeworth.This new study examines the role of the passions in the rise of the English novel. Geoffrey Sill examines medical, religious, and literary efforts to anatomize the passions, paying particular attention to the works of Dr. Alexander Monro of Edinburgh, Reverend John Lewis of Margate, and Daniel Defoe, novelist and natural historian of the passions. He shows that the figure of the physician of the mind is prominent not only in Defoe's novels, but also in those of Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Burney, and Edgeworth.List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: the passions and the English novel; 1. The physician and the mind from Zeno to Arbuthnot; 2. The heart, the Holy Ghost, and the ghost of Michael Servetus; 3. Alexander Monro and the anatomist's gaze; 4. Defoe and the natural history of the passions; 5. Crusoe in the cave: family passiolƒÔ