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Spinoza: a Life S. Nadler Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998 (350 pages). £22.95, hardback, ISBN 0-52155210-9--- Either ISSN or Journal title must be supplied

There are a number of stories or anecdotes relating to Spinoza's life. They are, in most cases, extracted from the biographies written by Colerus and Lucas, contemporaries of Spinoza, and regularly reported. As we learn from Nadler's book, most of them have to be taken with a grain of salt and give an imperfect and incomplete image of Spinoza. Nadler brings together a considerable documentation, undoubtedly already known in essence, but placed here in the political and cultural context of the time. He writes in the preface: