Varieties of Melancholy

Varieties of Melancholy 

This is a book that celebrates the most neglected but valuable emotion we can feel: melancholy. Melancholy isn't depression, rage or bitterness; it's a serene, wise and kindly response to the difficulties of being alive. It steers a midway course between despair on the one hand and naive optimism on the other. 

But melancholy is a well-kept secret. Those who feel the pull of melancholy moods tend to stay quiet. We don't often hear melancholy being celebrated or accorded the respect that it deserves. It languishes unexplored in a hyper competitive, noisy, frantic age. 

This book carefully collect and interprets a selection of the most universally recognisable melancholy states of mind, rendering us less confused by our previous yet elusive feelings. We discover the melancholy of Sunday evenings and the melancholy of adolescence, the melancholy of parties and the melancholy of crushes. 

Offering a varied portrait of melancholy and its range of manifestations, Varieties of Melancholy leads the reader to insight, acceptance and self-compassion.