Spinoza - A Novel Volumes I and II (Paperback)

An excerpt of a review from "The Westminster Review," Volume 118:
BERTHOLD AUERBACH'S novel will probably prove more attractive to the student and the admirers of the great pantheistic philosopher than to ordinary novel readers.
It is essentially a novel with a purpose, and that purpose is the setting forth of the life, the character, and the teachings of Spinoza. It would be difficult indeed for such a work to be popular in the sense in which romance writers aim at popularity. But to the ever-widening circle of students of Spinoza, and to the large class who like to leaven their light reading with instruction, the book will appeal directly. In Goethe's biography, he tells us of the distrust which Bayle's article on Spinoza inspired in him.
"In the first place," says Goethe, "the man was represented as an atheist, and his opinions as most abominable: but immediately after it was confessed that he was a calm, reflective, diligent scholar; a good citizen, a svmpathizing neighbour, and a peaceable domestic man."
In Auerbach's novel we are shown Spinoza from both these points of view, regarded with hatred and with horror by his enemies, with admiration by his friends. It is in no small degree to Goethe's admiration for him that Spinoza finds the widespread admiration which his writings and his teachings receive in the present day. The "great disinterestedness" which Goethe finds in every sentence-the "all-composing calmness" which made the great German poet his most devoted worshipper-these qualities have been appreciated and accepted by not a few who first learned to look for them through the teachings of Goethe. They may be found again in Auerbach's story.
"No figure," says Auerbach, "risen since Spinoza has lived so much in the eternal as he did." The fine study of the great Jewish philosopher is sure to lead many of its readers to seek a closer acquaintance with his own direct utterances.
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An excerpt from "The Nation," Volume 34:
THE translator of 'Spinoza' calls it a novel. Auerbach himself named it "Ein Denkerleben," and it is in fact one of those imaginative biographies which attempt rather to embody the spirit of a life than to narrate an exact sequence of real events. It is a book of many years since, and many who have read Auerbach's later works can never have heard of it. The oblivion that fell upon it is hardly deserved, though it has nothing to attract the usual novel-reader; on the other hand, while a life so lofty in aim and so absolute in its consecration to truth as Spinoza's can nowhere be viewed with indifference readers who can appreciate his intellectual force will seek it in philosophy rather than in fiction. The story follows the well-known outlines, closing with the excommunication of Spinoza by the ten Rabbis, "since he would have naught but the good old right of free thought." The portrait of Spinoza is lifelike, although the dialogue often becomes only a disquisition in philosophy, but the other figures lack reality. Even Olympia, the young Roman Catholic whom he loves but will not marry because he cannot forsake the faith of his fathers, has no such charm as to justify his devotion. The translation is superior to most work of the kind. It never degrades the original, though the sentences often labor with the weight of the heavy inversions of the German. "This neck-risking setting of his formerly squandered life on a single cast," is not English. There is an unaccountable fondness for changing constructions: the literal "Am I to be a tradesman?" is surely better than "Must I go into trade?" (See Chapter II).