"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.