Spinoza A Life

"The patient reader of SPINOZA A LIFE would be left with two possible mutually supporting 'pictures' of this biography. One picture is that of a well-documented, cautious, and wide-ranging social and political history of Jewish life in Holland between circa 1600 and 1677, within which Spinoza was one of the principal figures. The other picture (which only emerges after page 100) is of a careful, well-informed and philosophically astute series of expositions of Spinoza's major works and doctrines, linked together by brief factual transitions drawn from his letters and witnesses to his life. In either case, Spinoza's own life, apart from the expression of his views in his works and letters, appears as an overlay or imposition on a separable scholarly study."Nadler, Steven is the author of 'Spinoza A Life', published 2001 under ISBN 9780521002936 and ISBN 0521002931.