Narrative

14. Similarly, the second is The Medical Adviser and Complete Guide to Death and Long Life, Containing the Most Plain and Easy Directions for the Treatment of Every Disorder Incidental to the Human Frame in All Its Ages by Alexander Burnett, M.D. (London: Williams, 1825). The study of Romanticism often places great emphasis on metaphysical, moral, political and literary representations, less on the works that were useful to people in everyday life. Medical books, part of what we would now call the ‘self-help industry’, aimed to give people the knowledge to treat themselves and others without professional intervention, which could be costly and unreliable, or simply unavailable.