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A review by brew_and_books
A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion by Fay Bound Alberti
4.0
In the recent months of this year, I have found myself close to a situation where I have felt a tinge of loneliness/solitude/isolation. I believe I'm not the only one to come to grips with this feeling occasionally and that solitude is inevitable, even necessary at times. Olivia Laing's 'The Lonely City' is one of the best books of this year for me, only because it came out as something profoundly intimate and relatable. It helped me better understand my emotions when loneliness or anything in its periphery has clutched me far too often. A Biography of Loneliness adds to my experience of reading 'The Lonely City,' and I'm so satiated, exhilarated, and yearning for more such books & experiences.
Alberti builds up a strong argument on loneliness as a highly subjective and unique emotional experience whose history is not well documented or studied until the 21st century. Using different references from journal entries of an ordinary man to the illuminating instances of loneliness in the lives of Queen Victoria, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf, Alberti concurs that though loneliness can be easily identified (now), it's uneasily accounted for and is a very complex emotional state that differs as per class, community, age, gender, marital status, etc.
I have always been fascinated by the complex forays of emotions the human psyche undergoes and what circuit brings up what state, and how the chemical responses generated by seemingly small molecules give rise to such varied physical sensations. Loneliness as a state has been known and experienced by almost all, and I ain't saved from its seizure either. So reading about an all too familiar feeling that comes neither preachy nor boring has been a unique experience. It's been enlightening to know about its birth history and the identity it garnered from the 1800s to now. It wasn't just the science but the philosophical, political, and historical discourses this book took that gave it the depth I so loved. For me, it's a meticulous, thought-provoking, and exemplary work anchored around a ubiquitous feeling, totally universal.
Alberti builds up a strong argument on loneliness as a highly subjective and unique emotional experience whose history is not well documented or studied until the 21st century. Using different references from journal entries of an ordinary man to the illuminating instances of loneliness in the lives of Queen Victoria, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf, Alberti concurs that though loneliness can be easily identified (now), it's uneasily accounted for and is a very complex emotional state that differs as per class, community, age, gender, marital status, etc.
I have always been fascinated by the complex forays of emotions the human psyche undergoes and what circuit brings up what state, and how the chemical responses generated by seemingly small molecules give rise to such varied physical sensations. Loneliness as a state has been known and experienced by almost all, and I ain't saved from its seizure either. So reading about an all too familiar feeling that comes neither preachy nor boring has been a unique experience. It's been enlightening to know about its birth history and the identity it garnered from the 1800s to now. It wasn't just the science but the philosophical, political, and historical discourses this book took that gave it the depth I so loved. For me, it's a meticulous, thought-provoking, and exemplary work anchored around a ubiquitous feeling, totally universal.