Eric McCormack, who sadly passed away not too long ago, was simply one of the greatest (and unfortunately most unheralded) authors I have ever read. His stories are endlessly fascinating--clever, scary, weird, and funny at the same time. The consistent quality of his work was very high, and you need to check it out. One thread that runs through his work is repeated references to Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, a sprawling complex 17th century work that also has its share of those elements. This is McCormack's thesis, submitted to the University of Manitoba and freely available online. McCormack sets out to prove, and does not satisfactorily, that The Anatomy was intended from the beginning as a work of satire and that the 4 subsequent editions published during Burton's lifetime expanded the most satiric content while leaving the "scientific" parts of the book largely untouched. It is easy while reading The Anatomy to think it is intended seriously to be a scientific work, but clearly this is part of the satire. I learned more about The Anatomy by reading this thesis and I was reminded of some of the more interesting parts of Burton's work. I was also taken back to the days when things like this had to be typed on a typewriter! This PDF file is best read on a large tablet, such as the 11" Kindle. It certainly isn't necessary to read this to better understand McCormack's works, but I'm glad I did. I plan to re-read all of his works. They are so rich that I'm sure they'll be just as amazing, or even more so, the second time through.