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Sir Thomas Browne is one of the supreme stylists of the English language: a coiner of words and spinner of phrases to rival Shakespeare; the wielder of a weird and wonderful erudition; annbsp; inquiring spirit in the mold of Montaigne. Browne was an inspiration to the Romantics as well as to W.G. Sebald, and his work is quirky, sonorous, and enchanting. Here this baroque master's two most enduring and admired works, Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall, appear in a new edition that has been annotated and introduced by the distinguished scholars Ramie Targoff and Stephen Greenblatt (author of the best-selling Will in the World and the National Book Award-winning The Swerve). In Religio Medici Browne mulls over the relation between his medical profession and his profession of the Christian faith, pondering the respective claims of science and religion, questions that are still very much alive today. The discovery of an ancient burial site in an English field prompted Browne to write Urne-Buriall, which is both an earlynbsp; anthropological examination of different practices of interment and a profound meditation on mortality. Its grave and exquisite music has resounded for generations.… (more)
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There's a very good reason Browne's works are still published and enjoyed: the two pieces included in this volume, though written in the middle years of the seventeenth century, are among the most clearly written and well argued essays I've ever read. While I do not always agree with his conclusions (and in some areas of Urne-Buriall he's just completely wrong), Browne's utterly brilliant use of language is a real treat. There were more than a few times where I found myself reading out loud, just to hear how the prose felt when spoken.
Not only as an example of beautiful prose, Religio Medici is also a truly provocative attempt to reconcile science and religion, and both works here meditate on human mortality and aging. The two are separated by a fair number of years, though, and the differences in Browne's own style and attitudes are evident in the later work. I liked both, but in rather different ways. And it would have been fascinating to see what Browne thought of Religio Medici later in life, as his own views on family life, other religions, and mortality evolved over time.
Highly recommended, and this edition made be particularly good as an introduction to Browne's works. I confess, I've already been hunting down some others since I finished this ...
The introduction is good, but in addition to the notes at the back--some of which seem unnecessary since I was better at figuring out the meaning of 17th century phrases than I gave my self credit for--should have been supplemented by translations of ALL the Latin (and occasionally Greek) in Browne's own footnotes. This is one area where an ebook would have been far superior, since it would have been an easy task to highlight and paste into Google Translate. Still, good to have checked this one off my list!