Synopses & Reviews
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives—and destroyed them.
Now, Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are. Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers, and each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-drive design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped the world.
One of the most iconoclastic thinkers of all time, Friedrich Nietzsche continues to challenge the boundaries of conventional religion and morality with his subversive theories of the 'superman', the individual will, the death of God and the triumph of an all-powerful human life force.
Synopsis
The companion book to Beyond Good and Evil, the three essays included here offer vital insights into Nietzsche's theories of morality and human psychology.
Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of The Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil and signalling a return to the essay form. In these three essays, Nietzsche considers the development of ideas of 'good' and 'evil'; explores notions of guilt and bad consience; and discusses ascetic ideals and the purpose of the philosopher. Together, they form a coherent and complex discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than some of Nietzsche's previous writings.
Friedrich Nietzsche was born near Leipzig in 1844. When he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel University. From 1880, however, he divorced himself from everyday life and lived mainly abroad. Works published in the 1880s include The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist. In January 1889, Nietzsche collapsed on a street in Turin and was subsequently institutionalized, spending the rest of his life in a condition of mental and physical paralysis. Works published after his death in 1900 include Will to Power, based on his notebooks, and Ecce Homo, his autobiography.
Michael A. Scarpitti is an independent scholar of philosophy whose principal interests include English and German thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as exegesis and translation theory.
Robert C. Holub is currently Ohio Eminent Scholar and Professor of German at the Ohio State University. Among his published works are monographs on Heinrich Heine, German realism, Friedrich Nietzsche, literary and aesthetic theory, and J rgen Habermas.
Synopsis
'One must be superior to mankind in force, in loftiness of soul—in contempt’
In these two devastating works, Nietzsche offers a sustained and often vitriolic attack on the morality and the beliefs of his time, in particular those of Hegel, Kant and Schopenhaur. Twilight of the Idols is a ‘grand declaration of war’ on reason, psychology and theology that combines highly charged personal attacks on his contemporaries with a lightning tour of his own philosophy. It also paves the way for The Anti-Christ, Nietzche’s final assault on institutional Christianity, in which he identifies himself with the ‘Dionysian’ artist and confronts Christ; the only opponent he feels worthy of him.
In his introduction Michael Tanner discussed the themes of Nietzche’s argument and places the works in their historical and philosophical context.
Synopsis
For the first time in Penguin Classics: Nietzsches accessible exploration of key ideas in his landmark Beyond Good and Evilin a lucid new translation Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of On the Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil, and presenting a coherent discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than much of his previous writings.
Synopsis
The works of Friedrich Nietzsche have fascinated readers around the world ever since the publication of his first book more than a hundred years ago. As Walter Kaufmann, one of the world’s leading authorities on Nietzsche, notes in his introduction, “Few writers in any age were so full of ideas,” and few writers have been so consistently misinterpreted.
The Portable Nietzsche includes Kaufmann’s definitive translations of the complete and unabridged texts of Nietzsche’s four major works: Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Nietzsche Contra Wagner and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In addition, Kaufmann brings together selections from his other books, notes, and letters, to give a full picture of Nietzsche’s development, versatility, and inexhaustibility.
“In this volume, one may very conveniently have a rich review of one of the most sensitive, passionate, and misunderstood writers in Western, or any, literature.” —Newsweek
Synopsis
For the first time in Penguin Classics: Nietzsches accessible exploration of key ideas in his landmark Beyond Good and Evilin a lucid new translation Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of On the Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil, and presenting a coherent discussion of morality in a work that is more accessible than much of his previous writings.
About the Author
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844. After the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years later. Known for saying that “god is dead,” Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of the superiority of the disciplined individual (superman) living in the present over traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. His ideas were appropriated by the Fascists, who turned his theories into social realities that he had never intended.
Shaun Whiteside’s translations include Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy and Musil’s The Confessions of Young Törless for Penguin Classics.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chronology
Bibliography
Letter to His Sister
Fragment of a Critique of Schopenhauer
On Ethics
Note (1870-71)
From Homer's Contest
Notes (1873)
From On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense
Notes about Wagner
Notes (1874)
Notes (1875)
From Human, All-Too-Human
From Mixed Opinions and Maxims
From The Wanderer and His Shadow
Letter to Overbeck
Notes (1880-81)
From The Dawn
Postcard to Overbeck
From The Gay Science
Draft of a Letter to Paul Rée
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Editor's Preface
Contents
First Part
Second Part
Third Part
Fourth and Last Part
Note (1884)
Letters: To Overbeck; To His Sister; To Overbeck
Notes
From a Draft for a Preface
From Beyond Good and Evil
From The Gay Science: Book V
From Towards a Geneaology of Morals
Letter to Overbeck
Notes (1887)
Letter to His Sister
Notes (1888)
From The Wagner Case
Twilight of the Idols
Editor's Preface
Contents
The Antichrist
Editor's Preface
From Ecce Homo
Nietzsche Contra Wagner
Contents
Letters (1889): To Gast; To Jacob Burckhardt; To Overbeck
Editions of Nietzsche