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Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

by William Styron
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

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ISBN13: 9780679736394
ISBN10: 0679736395
Condition: Standard


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From Powells.com

25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die

Browse all of the exceptional memoirs that made our list.


Staff Pick

In his slim but by no means slight memoir, William Styron stresses: “The disease of depression remains a great mystery.” What is striking about Darkness Visible is how clearly and eloquently Styron is able to describe such a perplexing disease. Likening the illness to “a veritable howling tempest in the brain,” he chronicles his descent into the abyss of depression with a nakedness that is hard to look away from. Anyone who has grappled with mental illness (either personally or with a loved one) will find passages that not only resonate but have a healing, embracing effect, as Styron gracefully puts into words what so many find to be unspeakable pain. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

A work of great personal courage and a literary tour de force, this bestseller is Styron's true account of his descent into a crippling and almost suicidal depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.

Review

"Written by one whose book-learning proves a match for his misery, the memoir travels fastidiously over perilous ground, receiving intimations of mortality and reckoning delicately with them. Always clarifying his demons, never succumbing to them in his prose, Styron's neat, tight narrative carries the bemusement of the worldly wise suddenly set off-course — and the hard-won wisdom therein." Publishers Weekly

Review

"Compelling...[A] vivid portrait of a debilitating disorder...[O]ffers the solace of shared experience." The New York Times

Review

"A chilling yet hopeful report from a mental wilderness into which one in ten Americans disappears...[F]ascinating." Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A literary tour de force that chronicles a prize-winning author's descent into an almost suicidal depression.

Compelling ... Harrowing ... a vivid portrait of a debilitating disorder ... It offers the solace of a shared experience.--The New York Times

A work of great personal courage and a literary tour de force, this bestseller is Styron's true account of his experience of crippling depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.


About the Author

William Styron was born in 1925 in Newport News, Virginia. He served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and again for a year during the Korean War. Between his two periods in the Marines he completed his studies at Duke University and wrote his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, which won the 1951 Prix de Rome of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Styron lived for a short time in Paris, where he wrote his novel The Long March (1953) and participated in founding the literary magazine The Paris Review, of which he is still an advisory editor. He is the author of three more novels, Set This House on Fire (1960), The Confessions of Nat Turner, which won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, and Sophie's Choice (1979); a play, "In the Clap Shack" (1973); and an essay dealing with depression, Darkness Visible (1990). This Quiet Dust, a collection of nonfiction pieces, was published in 1982. His most recent book, a collection of three stories written when he was a young man, was A Tidewater Morning. As well as the Pulitzer and the Prix de Rome, Styron is the recipient of the National Book Award, the Howells Medal, and the Edward MacDowell Medal.

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`
crowyhead , April 07, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This is a brief, beautifully written memoir of one person's experience with depression. One thing I really appreciated about this book is the unflinching way Styron looks at and discusses suicide. Even very good books about depression dance around this topic; it's very difficult to discuss. But Styron looks at it head-on and to some extent demystifies it.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679736394
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
01/08/1992
Publisher:
Vintage
Language:
English
Pages:
96
Height:
.26IN
Width:
5.44IN
Thickness:
.50
LCCN:
91050032
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1992
Series Volume:
P2734
UPC Code:
2800679736396
Author:
William Styron
Subject:
Suicide, Attempted.
Subject:
Authors, American -- Biography.
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Famous persons.
Subject:
Authors, American
Subject:
Styron, william, 1925-
Subject:
Depresson
Subject:
Depressive Disorder
Subject:
Biography
Subject:
Depressed persons -- Suicidal behavior -- United States.
Subject:
Depressed persons
Subject:
Autobiography
Subject:
Biography-Literary
Subject:
Depressed persons -- United States -- Biography.

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