This is a book that celebrates the most neglected but valuableemotion we can feel: melancholy. Melancholy isn't depression oranger or bitterness, it's a serene, accepting, gentle, wise and kindlyresponse to the difficulties and occasional misery of being alive.It steers an ideal mid-way course between despair on the onehand and naïve optimism on the other.But melancholy is a well-kept secret. Those who feel the pull ofmelancholy moods tend to stay quiet about their tastes. We don'toften hear melancholy being celebrated or accorded the respectthat it deserves. Melancholy languishes unexplored in a hyper-competitive, noisy, frantic age.And yet the emotion heartily deserves exploration, it is one thatleads to reflection and thoughtfulness. This book carefully collectsand interprets a selection of the most universally recognisablemelancholy states of mind, and thereby renders us less confusedby our precious yet elusive feelings. We hear, among other things,about the melancholy of Sunday evenings and the melancholy ofadolescence, the melancholy of high summer and the melancholyof crushes.