Help with Sir Thomas Browne

[Sanveer Bindra]

Could anyone point me toward some good, affordable editions of Browne's work? Ideally with some scholarly cushioning - perhaps an introduction and some helpful notes? I have the New York Review of Books edition of Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall, which I'm happy with, but adequate editions of his other work have been hard to find.

[Jackson Richardson]

Why not try browzing second hand bookshops on Abe Books http://tinyurl.com/px5ptke ?

I have The Major Works in a Penguin edition which is available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/The-Major-Works-Hydrotophia-Christian/dp/0140431098 but you may want some of the other works as well.

[Jackson Richardson]

Browne is a writer I feel I ought to like - pre-Romantic, formal, one foot in the Middle Ages, pro-Christianity, tolerant, baroque prose, obviously a nice man - but he just doesn't press my buttons. I must try Urn Burial some time.

[Kevin Faulkner]

If you have a copy of the Penguin edition with its excellent introduction and index by C.A. Patrides you need no other edition whatsoever. I am now on my 4th copy of the Penguin edition in 20 years ! Peter Green's monograph Writers and their Work no. 108 is worth reading as is 'Approaches to sir Thomas Browne' a collection of essays edited by C.A. Patrides. Otherwise, read, read and read again in order to get to grips with what can be a difficult but equally rewarding text.

[mal4mac]

Another advantage of the Penguin edition is the cost, if you have a Kindle - they have reduced a lot of their classics to £2.99 (in the UK at least...) Thomas Browne's Major Works is included in this deal. What is rewarding about Thomas Browne?

[stlukesguild]

I have this edition picked up years ago at a used book store:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lUhVldbzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

I can't speak on the relative merits of the essays/introductions, but the cover and book itself seem better made than Penguin editions. You can check out what is included on the Amazon site:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Browne-Norton-Library-Seventeenth-Century/dp/0393006190