Spacks explores the topic of boredom and how it has both haunted and motivated the literary imagination for the past 250 years. Her chapters have subtitles with words like "Eighteenth-Century Men,"  "Eighteenth-Century Women," "Cultural Contexts of Nineteenth Century Boredom." We find a new way to connect Johnson, Bryon, Austen, Edgeworth and others from our favorite period with modern authors. Who would have guessed that the topic of boredom could be so interesting? University of Chicago Press. 1996. Paper. NEW. $32.00