The New York Times–bestselling memoir of crippling depression and the struggle for recovery by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sophie’s Choice.

In the summer of 1985, William Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him.

Darkness Visible tells the story of Styron’s recovery, laying bare the harrowing realities of clinical depression and chronicling his triumph over the disease that had claimed so many great writers before him. His final words are a call for hope to all who suffer from mental illness that it is possible to emerge from even the deepest abyss of despair and “once again behold the stars.”

This ebook features a new illustrated biography of William Styron, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Styron family and the Duke University Archives.

Length: 98 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1985 William Styron fell victim to a crippling and almost suicidal depression, the same illness that took the lives of Randall Jarrell, Primo Levi and Virginia Woolf. That Styron survived his descent into madness is something of a miracle. That he manages to convey its tortuous progression and his eventual recovery with such candor and precision makes Darkness Visible a rare feat of literature, a book that will arouse a shock of recognition even in those readers who have been spared the suffering it describes.

From Publishers Weekly

A meditation on Styron's ( Sophie's Choice ) serious depression at the age of 60, this essay evokes with detachment and dignity the months-long turmoil whose symptoms included the novelist's "dank joylessness," insomnia, physical aversion to alcohol (previously "an invaluable senior partner of my intellect") and his persistent "fantasies of self-destruction" leading to psychiatric treatment and hospitalization. The book's virtues--considerable--are twofold. First, it is a pitiless and chastened record of a nearly fatal human trial far commoner than assumed--and then a literary discourse on the ways and means of our cultural discontents, observed in the figures of poet Randall Jarrell, activist Abbie Hoffman, writer Albert Camus and others. Written by one whose book-learning proves a match for his misery, the memoir travels fastidiously over perilous ground, receiving intimations of mortality and reckoning delicately with them. Always clarifying his demons, never succumbing to them in his prose, Styron's neat, tight narrative carries the bemusement of the worldly wise suddenly set off-course--and the hard-won wisdom therein. In abridged form, the essay first appeared in Vanity Fair.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

File Size: 3725 KB
Print Length: 98 pages
Publisher: Open Road Media (May 4, 2010)
Publication Date: May 4, 2010
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00BBPVYUS
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,358 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #15 in Two-Hour Biography & Memoir Short Reads
- #26 in Depression (Kindle Store)
- #51 in Two-Hour Self-Help Short Reads

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Sal Banuelos

A very good description of what depression is

November 25, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I choose to read this book with hopes to understand depression. My son died of it at seventeen years old by taking his life, and we didn't suspect that he had it, he hid it so well. We were in total darkness of his suffering so when in his goodbye note he says that he was so tired of it we were struck by lightning of sorrow and confusion. This book explains really well this sickness, and has helped me tremendously to understand signs and actions that my son presented and did.

70 people found this helpful

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Famous author's account on his own struggle with depression.

October 28, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If topic of depression is what you want to read and learn about, this is a must read book. It can be read in a couple of hours but it will have a lasting effect for the rest of your life. This book is defining depression as a mental illness from a point of view of a person who suffered from it greatly to the point of nearly committing suicide. It does not matter if as a reader you suffer from the illness, or you know of someone who is affected by it, or you simply want to learn about the illness that is affecting a great number of population.

William Styron is such a fine writer that his honest essay of how he was affected by a disease is deeply moving. I was touched by his honesty about it from the first page of the book. By the time I reached chapter Five I was crying because everything, every word, every emotion, every conclusion he drew was so close to what it feels to suffer from an illness like this that has been stigmatized form the beginning of times. I was shaken to the core of my being.

I read many of Mr. Styron's book, but this is the only time I read his own account on what it means to be mentally ill and how it affects not only a person who is suffering from the illness, but also that person's immediate family, friends and professional contacts. It is my belief that every medical professional working and helping mentally ill should read this book so they can truly understand the inner works of what it feels like to be depressed written by one of the finest minds and writers of out time. As much as this book shook me up emotionally, I am grateful that there was a person like Mr. Styron who has a courage to write it.

42 people found this helpful

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Dan Baxter

A Letter from the Cavern of Depression

August 10, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

William Styron, as so many authors, fought depression throughout his life. This book originally was a lecture. It is a letter from within the cavern of depression told by a brilliant writer who wants all of us to understand the land in which he dwells. I have read it twice--both times at a single sitting. It is the best description of depression I have read. I found myself on most of the pages (to a lesser degree than Styron) and followed his lantern toward the exit from the darkness. Prozac came on the market about the time this book was published. It would have been interesting to read his report on the effects of the new generation of antidepressants on his illness.
If you live with depression or have a loved one you would like to understand better, DARKNESS VISIBLE is an excellent place to start.

24 people found this helpful

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Stiff Milton

I let my parents read it and they're not dumb by any means

November 5, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Well written, by the same author that wrote Sophie's Choice, about his struggle with deep depression. I would give it 5 stars personally, but giving it 4 stars just as a warning to others out there that this book isn't for everyone. I let my parents read it and they're not dumb by any means, this book is just very intellectual, but it may go over many people's heads. It describes the crippling feelings of depression perfectly to me, but it may not describe it perfectly to others. So, if you have someone in your family that's really "street smart" that's trying to understand your depression, this isn't the book for them. But if you have someone in your family that is trying to understand your depression that is very "book smart" this is the book for them. I hope this makes sense and helps.

34 people found this helpful

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DEE ANN R LOSO

Major Depression

December 17, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I believe it takes great strength of character to discuss, let alone memorialize, one’s journey through the quagmire that is major depression. There is still such stigma attached to any mental illness that one hesitates to discuss it with anyone.

As Mr. Styron rightly stated, everyone’s journey through depression is different. His experience is not necessarily the experience of another suffering from the same disease. I would highly recommend this book to anyone suffering from mental illness, as well as those close to them, so they may see that they are not alone and that there is hope.

12 people found this helpful

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Ellis D.

A Supportive Analysis of Depression. Worth the effort to read this one.

July 28, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

If you have ever experienced depression at the deepest of levels, you will find some very needed support from this book. It is very introspective and insightful. And, it shows that you are not the only person to ever feel the despair and hopelessness of depression. I feel this author understands the aspects of this disease better than any other so-called expert in the field of psychiatry.

9 people found this helpful

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Book Lover

A remarkable book for both people who have and have not experienced depression

May 4, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book was positively remarkable. Having gone into a depression this year for the first time in my life, I was looking for books that described other people's journey's to that dark, despairing place. Knowing that Styron was a remarkable writer was one reason to buy the book, but also knowing that he CAME OUT of his depression enough to write about it revealed that the book would be hopeful rather than only despairing.

I have recommended this book to many people since reading it, to both friends who have never been depressed and to the clinicians who are helping me through this difficult experience. I plan to read it again very soon primarily because I think it is a masterpiece of language.

I recommend it to anyone who appreciates truly magnificent writing or to those who would like to understand more about one person's experience both experiencing and conquering depression.

20 people found this helpful

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Love my Kindle

Excellent

August 7, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Absolutely, essentially excellent book (to me). Author Styron describes, expertly, the nature and experience of depression as no one can except one who has suffered it. It gave me such a leap forward and a depth of understanding of depression itself in regards to myself that i shall appreciate for the rest of my life. I will reread and share the contents, I'm sure, with everyone who will listen. Its a short book and for some reason I got a Kindle edition at a discount. But it's worth buying the hardcover which I will. If I could find an autographed copy I would be grateful. As it is I'll be grateful I found it.

9 people found this helpful

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