Diese Hardcover-Ausgabe ist Teil der TREDITION CLASSICS. Der Verlag tredition aus Hamburg ver�ffentlicht in der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS Werke aus mehr als zwei Jahrtausenden. Diese waren zu einem Gro�teil vergriffen oder nur noch antiquarisch erh�ltlich. Mit TREDITION CLASSICS verfolgt tredition das Ziel, tausende Klassiker der Weltliteratur verschiedener Sprachen wieder als gedruckte B�cher zu verlegen - und das weltweit! Die Buchreihe dient zur Bewahrung der Literatur und F�rderung der Kultur. Sie tr�gt ...
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Diese Hardcover-Ausgabe ist Teil der TREDITION CLASSICS. Der Verlag tredition aus Hamburg ver�ffentlicht in der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS Werke aus mehr als zwei Jahrtausenden. Diese waren zu einem Gro�teil vergriffen oder nur noch antiquarisch erh�ltlich. Mit TREDITION CLASSICS verfolgt tredition das Ziel, tausende Klassiker der Weltliteratur verschiedener Sprachen wieder als gedruckte B�cher zu verlegen - und das weltweit! Die Buchreihe dient zur Bewahrung der Literatur und F�rderung der Kultur. Sie tr�gt so dazu bei, dass viele tausend Werke nicht in Vergessenheit geraten.
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Add this copy of Spinoza to cart. $50.31, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2012 by Tredition Classics.
Add this copy of Spinoza (German Edition) to cart. $80.33, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Tredition Classics.
The philosopher Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza (1632 -- 1677) continues to fascinate modern readers. In addition to studies of his philosophy, Spinoza has been presented in several literary works. Among the earliest literary treatments of Spinoza is this novel, "Spinoza" by the German-Jewish writer Berthold Auerbach (1821 -- 1882), a once-famous author who has largely been forgotten. Auerbach first published the novel in 1837 but revised it substantially for a second edition in 1854. The work was translated into English in 1882 by E. Nicholson. This new offprint edition of "Spinoza" uses the 1882 translation and reprints the book without any additional editorial or critical apparatus.
The novel is a lengthy, difficult literary interpretation of Spinoza's life and thought. Auerbach used the biographical information on Spinoza available to him, but his portrayal of the philosopher's life and of the Amsterdam Jewish community should be taken with caution. The book covers the years 1647 -- 1661. It begins when Spinoza was 15 with the excommunication of an earlier Jewish heretic, Uriel Acosta. The novel concludes just after Spinoza's own excommunication. Individuals and events that figured in Spinoza's subsequent life tend to be shoehorned for artistic purposes into the years covered by the book.
The book differs from many modern novels in its depth and in its didacticism. The book includes much in the portrayal of its characters and a great deal of dialogue fleshing out the meagre historical record. Auerbach comments frequently on the story and editorializes in his own voice. Auerbach is clearly a great admirer of his subject. Even though it is fiction, the book offers insight into Spinoza's life, character, and philosophical development. It includes a lengthy story about the meeting and courtship of Spinoza's parents in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition and their immigration to the comparatively tolerant Netherlands. Auerbach describes the uneasy relationship of the immigrant Jewish community with the civil government which itself was in a state of turmoil.
The book shows young Spinoza as a brilliant, inquisitive, and originally pious student who, in the novel, receives the title "Rabbi" at the age of 15. Auerbach shows some of the Jewish sources of Spinoza's thought, with a chapter describing his claimed immersion in Jewish mysticism. Then, with the encouragement of his father and friends, Spinoza gradually becomes immersed in secular learning. He studies Latin, mathematics, and the philosophy of Descartes. Auerbach describes well these influences on Spinoza's thought. As the novel progresses, Spinoza moves further and further away, intellectually and physically from the community in which he as raised, leading to the climactic excommunication scene.
The book includes many scenes in which Berthold's Spinoza explains his philosophy in considerable detail to his friends and responds to possible objections. Berthold stresses throughout the romantic element of his story in which Spinoza falls in love with the beautiful and gifted daughter of his teacher Olympia van den Ende. This relationship and Spinoza's disappointment when it failed is documented in historical accounts. Auerbach uses a novelist's license to expand upon the historical record and to emphasize the importance of this failed love affair in Spinoza's life.
Following the excommunication scene, Auerbach ends the novel with an Epilogue in which Spinoza sees in a dream the figure of the fabled Ahasuerus who pronounces Spinoza the secular savior of mankind. Auerbach concludes the book with his own observation: "No thinker, arisen since Spinoza, has lived so much in the eternal as he did."
Auerbach was himself raised as an Orthodox Jew and studied for the rabinnate as a young man. Besides his novels and stories, he did the first translation of Spinoza into German. I became interested in reading this novel after reading a perceptive discussion by Daniel Schwartz in his book, "The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image" (2012)The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image Schwartz finds ambiguities in Auerbach's portrayal of Spinoza and his relationship to Judaism between a total break on the one hand, the more usual view, and a reformist view on the other hand. Some of the discussions between Auerbach's Spinoza and other characters in the book from the Jewish community tend to support the view that Auerbach's book shows unresolved ambiguities in its portrayal of Spinoza.
Although the book makes an effective novel, its primary value lies in its portrayal of Spinoza and in its discussion of his philosophy. The book will be of value to readers fascinated by Spinoza. I was glad to learn of the book in Schwartz' study and I am pleased that I had the opportunity to read the book in this newly-published offprint edition.
