Madness and the Sea: A Literary History

This book traces the origins of using sea journeys to treat mental illness, a practice recommended within the medical community through the nineteenth century. It also explores the profound consequences of such experiences on the health of writers who sought such cures as exemplified in their subsequent works. The use of sea voyages derived from the reception of Hippocratic medical treatises in the early Renaissance period that argued for the benefits of exposure to sea air and salt water f...