Bedlam

Many of literature's best-known characters have spent sleepless nights: Heathcliff roamed the moors, Hemingway's waiter didn't want to close up for the night, and Plath's teenage self stayed up for a month. And there are many others who can't sleep for lust, for joy, for the burden of memory, or for madness. While what is felt in sleep and dreams has long been regarded as revealing -- in life as well as in literature -- the experience of insomnia has remained a blank. Bedlam presents passages on insomnia from world literature past and present. Extracts from novels, short stories, poems, and philosophy are included with pieces by more than 40 writers.