Definitely not for beginners, covering as it does Spinoza, Kierkegaard, George Eliot, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Ramana Maharshi, Celia Paul, Proust, Arendt and (I’m pretty sure) Kant – as well as Christianity, Hinduism, the Kabala, and more… I very nearly gave up during the first chapter or two, as it seemed to be drifting more towards spiritualism, religion, meditation and yoga than anything I find meaningful or insightful as a hearty sceptic and firm atheist – but I’m glad I stuck with it.
For me, the discussions of the art of biography, biography versus fiction, the sheer impossibility of capturing a life in its entirety, and the comparisons between philosophy and religion were all fascinating and thought provoking. I’ll probably need to go back through at some point taking notes.
Having been surprised by how much I liked Middlemarch I’ll now have to dig out my dusty, unread copy of Daniel Deronda one of these days – as well as Carlisle’s biography of Eliot, as I’m now more or less convinced that she was one of the most interesting novelists of the 19th century. Carlisle’s biography of Kierkegaard is also going to go on the to read list. Kierkegaard is one of those philosophers I’ve never quite got around to – and another where I’ve had a book lying unread on the shelf for, as with most of Eliot, a good 30+ years now.