Overview: Constitutes the first book-length examination of the Romantic interest in obsessive thinking.Examines a wide variety of Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to John Keats.Enlists a transatlantic, inter.Most of us have, at one time, been obsessed with something, but how did obsession become a mental illness? This book examines literary, medical, and philosophical texts to argue that what we call obsession became a disease in the Romantic era and reflects the era’s anxieties. Using a number of literary texts, some well-known (like Mary Shelley’s 1818 .Frankenstein .and Edgar Allan Poe’s
|