Nonfiction | April 23, 2019
Spinoza’s Landlady
Robert Cochran
For so gentle and cautious a man, he provoked strong responses from the beginning. At twenty-three he was kicked out of Amsterdam’s Jewish community with impressive ceremony. An incensed Most High, he was assured by official proclamation in 1656, would “blot out his name from under heaven.” His neighbors, including his younger brother and business partner, Gabriel, were ordered to avoid all contact. He did little better with Catholic and Protestant authorities.
If you are a student, faculty member, or staff member at an institution whose library subscribes to Project Muse, you can read this piece and the full archives of the Missouri Review for free. Check this list to see if your library is a Project Muse subscriber.
Want to read more?
Subscribe TodaySEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Editors' Prize Winner
Apr 16 2024
How to Love Animals
How To Love Animals We never planned to get goats. In fact, we’d told ourselves that goats were off limits. My wife, Anna, and I were living in the middle… read more
Nonfiction
Apr 16 2024
My Cape Disappointment
My Cape Disappointment It was named by a British fur trader who’d been looking for the mouth of the Columbia River. Dejected, the fur trader gave up the search, tacked… read more
Nonfiction
Apr 16 2024
The Birds
The Birds In the middle of watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds with my family in our basement TV room, circa 1969, when I was nine, I was sent to the… read more