Product Description

Nietzsche is considered one of the most controversial philosophers of the modern age. His writings signalled a major turn in the history of Western philosophy and his influence is so profound that today not even the casual reader can ignore his life and ideas. In this book, Safranski positions the details of Nietzsche's unhappy life within the context of his thought. He talks about Nietzsche's boyhood obsession with music, his time in the army, his friendship with Wagner and his unrequited love for Lou Andreas Salome, quoting diaries, letters and discarded writings, each of which reveal a different side of this enigmatic figure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181780 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: German
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'A graceful and elegant book... Safranski is one of the most brilliant and eloquent essayists' Berliner Zeitung 'Based on profound research and excellently narrated, Safranski is the Grandseigneur of his genre who knows how to combine professional knowledge with comprehensible description' Die Welt

The Glasgow Herald
‘If you are willing to read but one book on Nietzsche in your lifetime, then this is the one to go for’

Spectator
‘Succinct and alive to Nietzsche’s style of thinking, Safranski provides a smooth, fair minded account of Nietzsche’s views and feelings’

Customer Reviews

Call me suspicious
I had purchased this book with the hope of reading a book which presented the development of Nietzsche's thought throughout the course of his life. What I got was a book which attempts to be both a biography and a critical discourse on the man's works, but succeeds well only at the first. As a biography, the book is not bad - it admirably covers all parts of Nietzsche's life, from his boyhood to his madness and eventual death, and even includes a chapter on the reception of his philosophy in Germany after his death. As a critical work, this book does not fare well against the established works on the subject (Kaufmann, Hollingdale, etc.) One example should suffice: in Safranski's chapter on the Untimely Meditations, he writes that work was "Nietzsche's focus in his critique of David Strauss", a statement that comes directly after a paragraph on Marxism. Anyone who has actually read the first Meditation may be somewhat surprised to learn this, given that the work is a polemic against the then-current cultural situation in Germany. I suppose that by joining the paragraphs on "David Strauss, the Writer and Confessor" and Marxism, Safranski wishes to make us believe that Nietzsche had many ideas in common with Marx, which will seem absurd to readers of either.

One more critique: in her Translator's Preface, Shelley Frisch writes that "readers in search of the sort of tell-all memoirs and scandalmongering that litter bookstore shelves" should turn elsewhere. After having read this preface, I opened up to a random page, which happened to be page 246, to read allegations that the young Nietzsche had had an incestuous affair with his sister. Needless to say, I don't agree with Prof. Frisch that this book is relatively free from tabloid-type allegations.