Bouvier Des Flandres

The Traite des trois imposteurs, ou l'Esprit de M. Spinosa is a most notorious clandestine work that was circulating throughout Europe in the 18th Century. The work is a pastiche of passages from Hobbes, Naude, La Mothe Le Vayer, Spinoza and others, contending that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were impostors who set up their religions for political reasons. In 1990 a research seminar on the origins, nature, meaning and dispersion of the text was held under the direction of Richard H. Popkin, with the...

This book is written in French. Ayant délaissé ses costumes gris et les brumes du Nord, Paul Morand nous brosse un tableau du Bassin de la Méditerranée, de Marseille à Athènes en passant par Tunis et Barcelone. Un véritable testament sudiste où il mêle politique, géographie et actualité. Il ne s'agit aucunement d'une carte postale, Morand étant l'anti-Pagnol, l'anti-pastis par excellence.

It's hard to remember a time when Thomas Hampson wasn't a fixture on the opera and concert stage, which makes it especially intriguing to revisit some of the early recordings of America's soon-to-be leading baritone. The album at hand was Hampson's first solo recital for Teldec, recorded in 1989 and now part of a wealth of Hampson reissues that have recently become available. If the title inevitably conjures up Gustav Mahler's name, you'll want to look more closely at the track list; while six of...