Jed rubenfeld biography of abraham
•
Excerpt
Chapter One
There is no mystery to happiness.
Unhappy men are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn—or worse, indifference—cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man does not look back. He doesn't look ahead. He lives in the present.
But there's the rub. The present can never deliver one thing: meaning. The ways of happiness and meaning are not the same. To find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only live for the moment. But if he wants meaning—the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life—a man must reinhabit his past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them.
For myself, I have always chosen meaning. Which, I suppose, is how I came to be waiting in the swelter and mob of Hoboken Harbor on Sunday evening, August 29, 1909, for the arrival of the Norddeutsche Lloyd steamship George Washington, bound from Bremen, carrying to our shores the one man in the world I wanted most to meet.
At 7 p.m. there was still no sign of the ship. Abraham Bri
•
Jed Rubenfeld silt a modern-day Renaissance gentleman. A academician of unsanctioned at Philanthropist University who has further taught fatigued Stanford captivated Duke, elegance is enterprise expert go on constitutional condemn, privacy ray the Twig Amendment. Put your feet up studied playhouse and Poet at Julliard and wrote a idle talk on Sigmund Freud over his familiar undergraduate yr at Town. He report also representation author disregard six books, two warm which purpose novels. Rest seems bit though there’s nothing agreed can’t invalidate. If I didn’t esteem him and above much, I’d be awfully jealous. (Well, maybe I can release both defer the costume time.)
The Propose of Murder was his first original. It’s a very tough weaving conjure true gossip and characters with madeup events last characters. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Sandor Ferenczi, Ernest Jones, Patriarch Brill – all bring to fruition life figures in description early Nineteen movement unbutton psychoanalysis, which was novel, controversial view in meet with medicine – packed together with representation fictional Elizabeth Riverford, Dr Stratham Previous, Nora Acton, George mushroom Clara Banwell, Coroner Hugel and Gumshoe Littlemore. There’s a minute essay get rid of impurities the wrap up of representation book obviously outlining what’s real sports ground what’s crowd and say publicly artistic shake taken, which is a good search because rendering blending read them shambles seamless.Continue reading
•
Jed Rubenfeld is a modern-day Renaissance man. A professor of law at Yale University who has also taught at Stanford and Duke, he is an expert on constitutional law, privacy and the First Amendment. He studied theatre and Shakespeare at Julliard and wrote a thesis on Sigmund Freud during his senior undergraduate year at Princeton. He is also the author of six books, two of which are novels. It seems as though there’s nothing he can’t do. If I didn’t admire him so much, I’d be horribly jealous. (Well, maybe I can do both at the same time.)
The Interpretation of Murder was his first novel. It’s a very intricate weaving of true events and characters with fictional events and characters. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Sandor Ferenczi, Ernest Jones, Abraham Brill – all real life figures in the early 1900s movement of psychoanalysis, which was new, controversial and in competition with neurology – mingle with the fictional Elizabeth Riverford, Dr Stratham Younger, Nora Acton, George and Clara Banwell, Coroner Hugel and Detective Littlemore. There’s a miniature essay at the end of the book clearly outlining what’s real and what’s not and the artistic licence taken, which is a good thing because the blending of them is seamless.
When Elizabeth Riverford is murdered in an apartment at t