{"product_id":"the-book-of-phobias-and-manias-a-history-of-obsession-9780593489758","title":"The Book of Phobias and Manias: A History of Obsession","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the winner of the Edgar Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize, a cultural history of \"everyday madness\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Phobias and Manias\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling compendium of 99 obsessions that have shaped us all, the rare and the familiar, from ablutophobia (a horror of washing) to syllogomania (a compulsion to hoard) to zoophobia (a fear of animals). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePhobias and manias are deeply personal experiences, and among the most common anxiety disorders of our time, but they are also clues to our shared past. The award-winning author Kate Summerscale uses rich and riveting case studies to trace the origins of our obsessions, unearthing a history of human strangeness, from the middle ages to the present day, and a wealth of explanations for some of our most powerful aversions and desires.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKate Summerscale\u003c\/b\u003e, formerly the literary editor of the \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e(London), is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Suspicions of Mr. Whicher\u003c\/i\u003e, a number one bestseller in the UK, which was translated into more than a dozen languages and won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the British Book Awards Book of the Year. Her first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Queen of Whale Cay\u003c\/i\u003e, won a Somerset Maugham Award and was short-listed for the Whitbread Biography Award, \u003ci\u003eThe Wicked Boy\u003c\/i\u003e won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and \u003ci\u003eThe Haunting of Alma Fielding\u003c\/i\u003e was short-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Summerscale lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50718124966162,"sku":"9780593489758","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8a2063e0-3871-47b6-8308-dd7e870031c5.jpg?v=1734633943","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-book-of-phobias-and-manias-a-history-of-obsession-9780593489758","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}