Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction: Imagination, Art and the Fictional Frame Chapter One: On 'Aesthetics' in Spinoza Figure of Thought 1: The Worm in the Blood Chapter Two: Affect, Imagination, and Freedom Figure of Thought 2: The Jubilant Stone Chapter Three: Disposition and the Ars Vivendi Figure of Thought 3: Nero's Ingratitude Chapter Four: Spinoza, Literary History and Artistic Practice Figure of Thought 4: Orlando Furioso and the Hippogriff. Chapter Five: The Complex Question of Spinoza's Influence: Defoe and Swift Figure of Thought 5: How to Destroy a Horse Chapter Six: Percy Shelly, Queen Mab, and The Revolt of Islam Figure of Thought 6: The Knave at the Gallows. Chapter Seven: Exemplarity in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Figure of Thought 7: Adam's Mistake Chapter Eight: George Eliot, Prophecy, and 'the not false error' Figure of Thought 8: The Winged Horse Chapter Nine: Virginia Woolf, The Waves, Desire, and Ethology Epilogue: Spinoza, Art, and the Ars Vivendi Works Cited Index.