Free man

Title: Free Man

Author: Nelleke Noordervliet

Binding: Paperback

EAN: 9789045705507

Condition: Good

Please note: Below is a general description of how we classify our condition types. If you would like a more precise picture or have specific questions, please send us a message and we will be happy to look into it for you.

Condition descriptions:
- As New: Hardly any signs of use, almost as new.
- Good: May show minor signs of use, such as some discoloration or a name on the endpapers, but generally no underlining or notes in the text.
- Fair: Book in fair condition. May show signs of use, such as discoloration, reading creases in spine, underlinings, notes, light soiling at edges, dog-ears, or a crooked spine.
- New: Book is new.

Description:
Setting: The Republic of the Seven United Provinces and the New World. Main character: physician and lawyer Menno Molenaar, who after the early death of his father eats the bread of charity of his Rotterdam merchant family, and lonely and stubbornly seeks his way. The young Menno Molenaar comes into contact with two worlds at the Leiden Alma Mater: that of the perverse English cloth merchant Dixon and that of the young radical thinkers around Spinoza. He becomes friends with one of them, Adriaan Koerbagh. Molenaar completes a study of both law and medicine. Despite his preference for medicine, he is manoeuvred by Dixon to The Hague to work for Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt to gather information that the English can use in their eternal conflict with the Netherlands. The worlds of the radical, upright thinkers and that of the rich Englishman and his wife, who yearns for love, become intertwined in a way that Menno Molenaar finds unbearable. When the pressure Dixon exerts on him mentally and physically becomes too great, he opts for a rigorous act of extreme violence, after which he sets sail for the New World. In New York, Menno Molenaar tries to come to terms with the turbulent past. He strives to establish an ideal community according to the rules of his radical friends. But ideals cannot simply be realized and the burden of unyielding fate ultimately determines the sign in which his life will finally stand. That is the story of Menno Molenaar. But there is more... Nelleke Noordervliet is part of the story, she walks with Menno Molenaar through the decor of his past. She writes his history, which is a distortion of the real history. Can she really know the past, really understand it? Does she not see what she knows: the problems of her own time placed back in the past? To broaden her horizons, Nelleke Noordervliet interweaves her story of Menno Molenaar with personal testimonies from people who share Menno's life - historical figures such as Lieuwe van Aitzema and Johan de Witt, and fictional characters, because Vrij man is and remains a novel.