Literature and medicine during the eighteenth century

First published in 1993. Although today, medicine and literature are widely seen as falling on different sides of the 'two cultures' divide, this was not so in the eighteenth century when doctors, scientists, writers and artists formed a well-integrated educate elite.

This book uncovers the interconnections between medical and psychological theory and ideas of taste, beauty and genius - representing a major exploration of the unity of Enlightenment culture.

Leading historians of medicine and eighteenth-century literary critics explore the rich cultural milieu of the period and investigate the ways in which medicine itself contributed to informing a gendered discourse of the world.