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This little book, written by an English physician, is concerned primarily with the problem of the so-called psychopathology of genius and represents a series of discussions of 15 famous literary figures. The author hastens to stress that medical diagnoses of men long dead are difficult and adds that there is a “large speculative element” involved.
He begins with a discussion of Thomas Carlyle, giving some general background and stressing the fact that Carlyle's writings represent endless structural and unresolvable conflict. He summarizes his medical approach by claiming him to be a victim of dyspeptic neurasthenia.
Shelley next comes in for observation, and then there is a little discussion on his youth, his atheism and his gravest mistake—the breaking of his engagement to Harriet Grove and his marriage to Harriet Westbrook, followed by his betrayal of her for Mary Godwin leading to his beginning use of drugs. There is some interesting material here on his use of hypnotism and the general opinion that he suffered from all sorts of organic diseases. His death from drowning closes the picture on an obviously unstable person whom the author classifies as a neurotic.
Christopher Smart is considered in a brief chapter, including a short discussion of his religious delusions and his intermittent hospitalizations, and then the author turns to Walt Whitman whom he considers an “enigma” (not really a very clear medical diagnosis), and classifies as an introvert with abnormal sexual patterns of behavior.
Swinburne is listed as an epileptic, Edgar Allan Poe as an individual suffering from an Oedipus complex escaping into alcoholism and opium, and Charles Lamb as a genius who resented the impertinence of manhood.
De Quincey is naturally linked with opium problems, Baudelaire's syphilis and Balzac's high blood pressure are discussed, followed by consideration of Keats and his tuberculosis, Burns and his rheumatic fever, and Byron and his lameness. Physical infirmities are summed up