Basic writings of Nietzsche
1968
- nonfiction
- philosophy
- philosophy / essays
- philosophy / history & surveys / modern
- philosophy / individual philosophers
- philosophy, german
- existentialism
- b3312.e5 k3 2000
- 193
The story
One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche's most important works, from his first book to his last: The Birth of Tragedy; Beyond Good and Evil; On the Genealogy of Morals; The Case of Wagner; and Ecce Homo. Edited and translated by the great Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann, this volume provides a definitive guide to the full range of Nietzsche's thought.Included also are seventy-five aphorisms, selections from Nietzsche's correspondence, and variants from drafts for Ecce Homo.From the Trade Paperback edition.
What it’s like
Dense, argumentative prose set in a sober modern-library layout: long numbered aphorisms, sharp short sentences, and sudden flashes of wit and invective that cut through page after page of ferocious argument. The voice is restless and combative, often swaggering, sometimes lyrical about Greek tragedy and mountain air, then abruptly mocking of pieties, scholars, and German culture. Reading it feels like being lectured by a brilliant, impatient friend who keeps pacing the room and turning on you mid-sentence. The register is cerebral and bracing rather than cozy, with a melancholy undertow in the aphorisms about solitude, suffering, and the self. Its intensity is intellectual: no gore or sexual content, but plenty of scorn, polemic, and occasional disturbing talk of cruelty and domination that is meant to provoke. Best for a slow, focused weekend with a notebook, for readers who want ideas that push back, not comfort or escape.
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