Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

"In the summer of 1985, William Styron, the acclaimed author of Sophie's Choice, was overtaken by persistent insomnia and a troubling sense of malaise--the first signs of a deep depression that would engulf his life and leave him on the brink of suicide. In Darkness Visible the great novelist describes his horrific descent into despair, taking us on an unprecedented journey into the realm of madness. An instant #1 bestseller when it was originally published ..., this moving memoir is now widely considered a classic. Darkness Visible is a book whose power and influence opened the world's view to a devastating condition that had previously remained a shameful secret. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape as well as the illuminating path to recovery. 'To most of those who have experienced it,' Styron writes, 'the horror of depression is so overwhelming as to be quite beyond expression.' Through Styron's remarkable candor and brilliant description, we come truly to understand the anguish of a mind desperate unto death. We are moved yet not made despondent by his account: with him, we feel uplifted by a sense of catharsis and can at last begin to fathom depression's dark reality."--Dust jacket.