Darkness Visible

Darkness Visible Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Darkness Visible is the brief memoirs of William Styron's descent into depression. At the time of Styron's diagnosis in 1985, antidepressant medication had not yet been released and psychiatrists often felt impotent to fully understand the illness. This book is an internal exploration into one man's psychological journey and the struggle against an almost unbeatable enemy.

Styron's story begins in October of 1985 in Paris where the author has a flashback to the spring of 1952 when he was a young man, new to Paris, and staying in the Hotel Washington. The sight of this hotel from a car window on this night almost thirty-five years later makes Styron feel that he has gloomily come full circle. At that moment, Styron feels certain that he will never again see Paris.

Styron has come to Paris this time to attend an award ceremony where he will receive the coveted Prix Mondial Cino del Duca award for artists and scientists dedicated to works of humanism. The pall of depression had begun to set in on Styron for some time before this night, and he almost declined the invitation. Now as Styron accepts his award, he relates that most of the cash prize will be donated to charity, but a small part will be retained for personal matters. Only Styron and his wife, Rose, knew that the author wanted the money for two tickets on the Concorde in order to keep an appointment with a New York psychiatrist in a few days.

Styron is painfully honest about his symptoms in these early days of his disease, which is coupled with the lack of any real assistance available through the medical community. The author painfully endures the events to which he is obliged to attend while in Paris but it is uncomfortably evident to his companions that Styron is not well. As Styron rides in the car on this night in Paris he thinks of Albert Camus and Romain Gary.