In the Context of His Times : : Alfred Dreyfus as Lover, Intellectual, Poet, and Jew / / Norman Simms.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Academic Studies Press Backlist eBook-Package 2008-2013
• VerfasserIn: Simms, Norman,
• MitwirkendeR: MacNeil, Ken,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston, MA : : Academic Studies Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (350 p.)

From the very moment Alfred Dreyfus was placed under arrest for treason and espionage, his entire world was turned upside down, and for the next five years he lived in what he called a phantasmagoria. To keep himself sane, Dreyfus wrote letters to and received letters from his wife Lucie and exercised his intellect through reading the few books and magazines his censors allowed him, writing essays on these and other texts he had read in the past, and working out problems in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He practiced his English and created strange drawings his prison wardens called architectural or kabbalistic signs. In this volume, Norman Simms explores how Dreyfus kept himself from exploding into madness by reading his essays carefully, placing them in the context of his century, and extrapolating from them the hidden recesses of the Jewish Alsatian background he shared with the Dreyfus family and Lucie Hadamard.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Prologue. How to Read this Book -- Chapter 1. Through a Spinning Prism Lightly -- Chapter 2. The Ultimate Contraption -- Chapter 3. Transcending Radical Solitude -- Epilogue. Has everything been said that could be said about the topic? -- Appendices -- Appendix I: Persons quoted and discussed in Dreyfus’s Prison Notebooks -- Appendix II: Topics, Places, Themes and Events Discussed in Dreyfus’s Prison Notebooks -- Appendix III: Equations, Formulae and Sketches in Dreyfus’s Prison Notebooks -- Appendix IV. Maths and Science in Dreyfus’s Prison Notebooks -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Key Ideas, Concepts and Terms