Paul Mantegazza

"Noted physician, anthropologist, travel writer, novelist, and politician Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910) was probably the most eclectic cultural figure in late nineteenth-century Italy. This volume is a representative overview of Mantegazza's key works, many of them translated into English for the first time. In addition to the unabridged Physiology ofLove (1873), a best-seller at the time of its initial publication, this compilation features selections from Mantegazza's writings on medicine and travel, his epistolary novel One Day in Madeira (1868), and his treatise on materialist aesthetics. This volume also includes a comprehensive introduction by Nicoletta Pireddu and excerpts from Mantegazza's science fiction, memoirs, and social and cultural criticism." "In addition to providing an anthology of Mantegazza's works, this volume presents a view of the circulation of ideas and cross-fertilization of disciplines that characterized an important period in Italian and European cultural life."--BOOK JACKET.

A la recherche de la société juste et heureuse, la seconde moitié du XIXème siècle a multiplié les utopies. L'an 3000 du pathologiste italien Paolo Mantegazza est, en 1887, l'une des ultimes expressions de la confiance en l'effort et dans le génie humain. Lue à la lumière des tragiques expériences du XXe siècle, cette optimiste vision de l'avenir, pour la première fois traduite en français, prend pour le lecteur moderne les allures inquiétantes d'une anti-utopie scientifique où sont éliminés sans remords les êtres inadaptés et où la pensée même est soumise au dirigisme impitoyable de l'Etat.