Scan barcode
casparb's review
famously a ridiculous stylist, equally a wonderful expression. I really enjoyed Browne, for a writer I picked up on a whim. a powerhouse of the age
the heart of man is the place the devill dwels in; I feele sometimes a hell within my self, Lucifer keeps his court in my brest, Legion is revived in me.
the heart of man is the place the devill dwels in; I feele sometimes a hell within my self, Lucifer keeps his court in my brest, Legion is revived in me.
briancrandall's review
5.0
Now for my life, it is a miracle of thirty yeares, which to relate, were not a History, but a peece of Poetry, and would sound to common eares like a fable; for the world, I count it not an Inne, but an Hospitall, and a place, not to live, but to die in. The world that I regarde is my selfe, it is the Microcosme of mine owne frame, that I cast mine eye on; for the other, I use it but like my Globe, and turn it rounde sometimes for my recreation. [82]
Darknesse and light divide the course of time, and oblivion shares with memory a great part even of our living beings; we slightly remember our felicities, and the smartest stroaks of affliction leave but short smart upon us. Sense endureth no extremeties, and sorrows destroy us or themselves. To weep into stones are fables. Afflictions induce callosities, miseries are slippery, or fall like snow upon us, which notwithstanding is no unhappy stupidity. To be ignorant of evils to come, and forgetfull of evils past, is a mercifull provision in nature, whereby we digest the mixture of our few and evil dayes, and our delivered senses not relapsing into cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by the edge of repetitions. [136]
sebiic's review
funny
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
This is the prose that tickles that aesthetic bone in your body.
calderwest's review against another edition
2.0
Turns out that the premise of "good prose" doesn't make a "good read"
chelsea_rae's review against another edition
3.0
(more like 4.5)
"The earth is a point not onely in respect of the heavens above us, but of that heavenly and celestiall part within us: that masse of flesh that circumscribes me, limits not my mind: that surface that tells the heavens it hath an end, cannot perswade me... whilst I study to find how I am a Microcosme or little world, I finde my selfe something more than the great."
these texts are gorgeous, and greenblatt&targoff's introduction is lovely as well. i spent a long night lying on the floor of a friend's loft, drinking cider and reading parts of it aloud to him when i couldn't help it, and honestly... that was maybe the best way to experience browne. he's engrossing.
"The earth is a point not onely in respect of the heavens above us, but of that heavenly and celestiall part within us: that masse of flesh that circumscribes me, limits not my mind: that surface that tells the heavens it hath an end, cannot perswade me... whilst I study to find how I am a Microcosme or little world, I finde my selfe something more than the great."
these texts are gorgeous, and greenblatt&targoff's introduction is lovely as well. i spent a long night lying on the floor of a friend's loft, drinking cider and reading parts of it aloud to him when i couldn't help it, and honestly... that was maybe the best way to experience browne. he's engrossing.
More...