Most of us have at one time been obsessed with something but how did obsession become a
mental illness? This book examines literary medical and philosophical texts to argue that
what we call obsession became a disease in the Romantic era and reflects the era's anxieties.
Using a number of literary texts some well-known (like Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein and
Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 The Tell Tale Heart) and some not (like Charlotte Dacre's 1811 The
Passions and Charles Brockden Brown's 1787 Edgar Huntly) the book looks at vigilia an overly
intense curiosity intellectual monomania an obsession with study nymphomania and erotomania
gendered forms of desire revolutiana an obsession with sublime violence and military service
and ideality an obsession with an idea. The coda argues that traces of these Romantic
constructs can be seen in popular accounts of obsession today.
