Lepenies' study on melancholy and society was first published in 1969. Melancholy is presented as a socially conditioned phenomenon - especially in those cases where melancholic behavior appears as a form of escape from society. The sources used are of various natures: the novel stands alongside utopia, sociological analysis, and aphorisms. This disparity is dictated by the subject matter: neither melancholy nor utopian thinking and boredom can be confined to a single discipline or processed within it.