Anna Kortelainen
Art historian Anna Kortelainen has written a delicious book that guarantees a rapturous read for everyone captivated by the idea of enchantment.
Upon its release, Kortelainen’s best-selling Virginie!, the story of Albert Edelfelt’s mistress, was one of Finland’s most lauded works of nonfiction, receiving substantial media attention. Since then, Kortelainen has written several successful works on a variety of subjects. The author is also a popular speaker, and the topics she deals with always capture the imagination of new reading and listening audiences.
Written by Anna Kortelainen
Ecstasy
Ecstasy is a medical manual for the masses, which nevertheless comes with a warning: read with caution and restraint, contents may provoke a dangerous state of agitation!
The young soldier Henri Beyle, better known as the author Stendhal, suffered from a strange attack in Florence in September 1811. This illness has since been named the Stendhal Syn- drome, but what exactly is it? In her satirically humorous work, Kortelainen presents a cavalcade of victims, from authors representing different eras to 21st-century individuals who have been afflicted by rapture.
A team of world-class experts has been assembled to get to the bottom of this remarkable illness. Each expert, hailing from a different era, naturally feels that his or her diagnosis is the correct one. And before the patient is once again a healthy, subdued, rational creature, we have time to shake our heads at the sister afflictions of ecstasy: falling in love at first sight, music-induced states of agitation, and other consequences of unrestrained passion.
”It is the responsibility of each reader to decide whether he can prevent the epidemic before it infects him or those close to him.”
– Finnish Medical Authority report
”I rose up onto the chair in the museum and stood there and swayed; the guards were not pleased. My wife was also ashamed.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
”It was at once painful and pleasurable – I do not know whether it can be recommended for everyone.”
– St Teresa of Ávila
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