I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux (PDF)

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NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice • THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZEA groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will to power, slave morality—have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the human condition. But what do most people really know of Nietzsche—beyond the mustache, the scowl, and the lingering association with nihilism and fascism? Where do we place a thinker who was equally beloved by Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Martin Buber, and Adolf Hitler? Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing—overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father—through his teaching career, lonely philosophizing on high mountains, and heart-breaking descent into madness, Prideaux documents Nietzsche’s intellectual and emotional life with a novelist’s insight and sensitivity. She also produces unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé, the femme fatale who broke his heart; and his sister Elizabeth, a rabid German nationalist and anti-Semite who manipulated his texts and turned the Nietzsche archive into a destination for Nazi ideologues. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history’s most misunderstood philosopher.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review The Times Biography of the Year 2018“An exemplary biography. . . . Nietzsche steps out of the mists of obfuscation and rumor, vividly evoked. . . . An attentive, scrupulous portrait.” —Parul Seghal, The New York Times“This vibrant account of Friedrich Nietzsche’s life is a searching portrait of the philosopher and a keen assessment of his work. . . . Nietzsche often worried that he would be misread and misused; that he was, and still is, underlines the value of clear-eyed interpretations such as this.” —The New Yorker”Prideaux’s biography is a strikingly original portrait of Nietzsche and beautifully written.” —Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad“Prideaux’s stylistic virtuosity and narrative talent has carved a much wider entry point to Nietzsche’s life and thought, setting a new standard for the genre.” —Maria Dimitrova, Bookforum”This is what every biography should be like—engrossing, intelligent, moving, often downright funny, and filled with insights and sharply observed details from an extraordinary life. Simply a blast.” —Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe“The biography Friedrich Nietzsche has been crying out for since the day he lost his reason and embraced a horse in a Turin square in 1889. Prideaux brings a calm and steady light to bear on this most incandescent of philosopher-poets, with illuminating results.” —John Banville, The Guardian“Splendid. . . . A beautifully written, and often intensely moving, account of a life devoted to the achievement of intellectual greatness and the exploration of the conditions for its flourishing.” —Jonathan Derbyshire, Financial Times“An outstanding biography impressive in the depth and breadth of its knowledge.” —John Carey, The Sunday Times“If ever there was to be a popular biography of Nietzsche, this is it. . . . Prideaux is a dogged, amiable guide and leaves you in no doubt whatsoever that her frail, footloose, ill-tempered subject was one of the most extraordinary people who ever lived” —Leo Robson, The Evening Standard“This biography is nothing short of a revelation. . . . Here is Nietzsche as most of us have not encountered him before. . . . The great pleasure of Prideaux’s sprightly biography is watching philosophy in the making.” —Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian“Masterful. . . . What sets Prideaux’s biography apart from previous accounts of Nietzsche’s life is its vibrant intimacy. Eschewing philosophical rigorousness for human proximity, Prideaux quite simply gets closer to Nietzsche than anyone before her.” —Morten Høi Jensen, The Los Angeles Review of Books“An excellently researched and compulsively readable book. . . . Packed with insights. . . . This is not just a deeply enjoyable and enlightening book. It’s also an all-too-timely one.” —The Spectator“Wide-ranging and sensitive. . . . An approachable biography of a usually forbidding man.” —The Economist“Witty, terribly clever and steeped in the wild, doomed peculiarities of 19th-century Germania, I Am Dynamite! is a tremendous and reformative biography of a man whom popular history has perhaps done a disservice.” —Hugo Rifkind, The Times (London)”A wonderful book about a truly remarkable man.” —Nigel Warburton, author of Thinking from A to Z“A wonderfully gripping new biography of Nietzsche—the type you stay in bed all Sunday just to finish.” —The Irish Times“Beautiful and engaging. . . . Wonderfully readable. . . . The story of Nietzsche’s life is by turns inspiring, poignant and dispiriting, and it has never been better told than in this riveting book.” —Ray Monk, The New Statesman“I Am Dynamite is a wonderful insight into an almost impossible character. . . . Prideaux gives back the humanity to the all-too-human Nietzsche, and even manages to do so for his wicked sister.” —Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman“I Am Dynamite! marks a natural progression from Prideaux’s previous two biographies of Munch and Strindberg. To those of us who value common sense, sound judgment, and quiet elegance, these three men are not exactly favorites—and nor is Wagner—but such reservations are blown away by the author’s formidable narrative powers, confirming her place among Britain’s top biographers.” —Henrik Bering, The New Criterion“A handsome, well-paced, and readable new biography. . . . An engaging book. . . . Prideaux paints a vivid picture of Nietzsche.” —Jonathan Rée,Prospect About the Author Sue Prideaux is a novelist and biographer. Her books include Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Strindberg: A Life, which received the Duff Cooper Prize and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. On November 9, 1868, the twenty-four-year-old Nietzsche recounted a comedy to Erwin Rohde, his friend and fellow-student at Leipzig University.“The acts,” he wrote, “in my comedy are headed:1. An evening meeting of the society, or the sub professor.2. The Ejected Tailor.3. A rendezvous with X.“The cast includes a few old women.“On Thursday evening Romundt took me to the theatre, for which my feelings are growing very cool . . . we sat in the gods like enthroned Olympians sitting in judgement on a potboiler called Graf Essex. Naturally I grumbled at my abductor . . .“The first Classical Society lecture of the semester had been arranged for the following evening and I had been very courteously asked if I would take this on. I needed to lay in a stock of academic weapons but soon I had prepared myself, and I had the pleasure to find, on entering the room at Zaspel’s, a black mass of forty listeners . . . I spoke quite freely, helped only by notes on a slip of paper . . . I think it will be all right, this academic career. When I arrived home I found a note addressed to me, with the few words: ‘If you want to meet Richard Wagner, come at 3:45 p.m. to the Café Théâtre. Windisch.’“This surprise put my mind in somewhat of a whirl . . . naturally I ran out to find our honorable friend Windisch, who gave me more information. Wagner was strictly incognito in Leipzig. The Press knew nothing and the servants had been instructed to stay as quiet as liveried graves. Now, Wagner’s sister, Frau Professor Brockhaus, that intelligent woman whom we both know, had introduced her good friend, Frau Professor Ritschl to her brother. In Frau Ritschl’s presence, Wagner plays the Meisterlied [Walther’s Prize Song from Wagner’s most recent opera, Die Meistersinger, premiered a few months earlier] and the good woman tells him that this song is al- ready well known to her. [She had already heard it played and sung by Nietzsche, though its musical score had been published only very recently.] Joy and amazement on Wagner’s part! Announces his supreme will, to meet me incognito; I am to be invited for Sunday evening . . .“During the intervening days my mood was like something in a novel: believe me, the preliminaries to this acquaintance, considering how unapproachable this eccentric man is, verged on the realm of fairy tale. Thinking there were many people to be invited, I decided to dress very smartly, and was glad that my tailor had promised my new evening suit for that very Sunday. It was a terrible day of rain and snow. I shuddered at the thought of going out, and so I was content when Roscher visited me in the afternoon to tell me a few things about the Eleatics [an early Greek philosophical school, probably sixth-century BC] and about God in philosophy. Eventually the day was darkening, the tailor had not come and it was time for Roscher to leave. I accompanied him so as to continue to visit the tailor in person. There I found his slaves hectically occupied with my suit; they promised to send it in three-quarters of an hour. I left contentedly, dropped in at Kintschy’s [a Leipzig restaurant much frequented by students] and read Kladderadatsch [a satirical illustrated magazine] and found to my pleasure a notice that Wagner was inSwitzerland. All the time I knew that I would see him that same evening. I also knew that he had yesterday received a letter from the little king [Ludwig II of Bavaria] bearing the address: ‘To the great German composer Richard Wagner.’“At home I found no tailor. Read in a leisurely fashion the dissertation on the Eudocia, and was disturbed now and then by a loud but distant ringing. Finally I grew certain that somebody was waiting at the patriarchal wrought-iron gate; it was locked, and so was the front door of the house. I shouted across the garden to the man and told him to come in by the back. It was impossible to make oneself understood through the rain. The whole house was astir. Finally, the gate was opened and a little old man with a package came up to my room. It was six thirty, time to put on my things and get myself ready, for I live rather far out. The man has my things. I try them on; they t. An ominous moment: he presents the bill. I take it politely; he wants to be paid on receipt of the goods. I am amazed and explain that I will not deal with him, an employee, but only with the tailor himself. The man presses. Time presses. I seize the things and begin to put them on. He seizes the things, stops me from put- ting them on—force from my side; force from his side. Scene: I am fighting in my shirttails, endeavouring to put on my new trousers.“A show of dignity, a solemn threat. Cursing my tailor and his assistant, I swear revenge. Meanwhile he is moving off with my things. End of second Act. I brood on my sofa in my shirttails and consider black velvet, whether it is good enough for Richard.“Outside the rain is pouring down. A quarter to eight. At seven thirty we are to meet in the Café Théâtre. I rush out into the windy, wet night, a little man in black without a dinner jacket.“We enter the very comfortable drawing room of the Brockhauses; nobody is there apart from the family circle, Richard and the two of us. I am introduced to Richard and address him in a few respectful words. He wants to know exact details of how I became familiar with his music, curses all performances of his operas and makes fun of the conductors who call to their orchestras in a bland voice; ‘Gentlemen, make it passionate here. My good fellows, a little more passionate!’ . . .“Before and after dinner, Wagner played all the important parts of the Meistersinger, imitating each voice and with great exuberance. He is indeed a fabulously lively and fiery man, who speaks very rapidly, is very witty and makes a very private party like this one an extremely gay affair. In between, I had a longish conversation with him about Schopenhauer; you will understand how much I enjoyed hearing him speak of Schopenhauer with indescribable warmth, what he owed to him, how he is the only philosopher who has understood the essence of music.”Schopenhauer’s writings were at that time little known and less valued. Universities were highly reluctant to recognize him as a philosopher at all, but Nietzsche was swept up in a whirlwind enthusiasm for Schopenhauer, having recently discovered The World as Will and Representation by chance, the same chance or, as he preferred to put it, the same chain of fateful coincidences seemingly arranged by the unerring hand of destiny that had led up to this meeting with Wagner in the Brockhauses’ salon.The first link in the chain had been forged a month before the meeting, when Nietzsche heard the preludes to Wagner’s two latest operas, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. “Every fiber, every nerve in my body quivered,” he wrote the same day, and he set himself to learning the piano arrangements. Next, Ottilie Brockhaus had heard him play and relayed the news to her brother Wagner. Now the third link: Wagner’s deep attachment to the obscure philosopher whose writings had been Nietzsche’s com- fort when he had first arrived in Leipzig, rootless and unhappy, three years previously.“I [Nietzsche] lived then in a state of helpless indecision, alone with certain painful experiences and disappointments, without fundamental principles, without hope and without a single pleas- ant memory . . . One day I found this book in a second-hand book- shop, picked it up as something quite unknown to me and turned the pages. I do not know what demon whispered to me ‘Take this book home with you.’ It was contrary to my usual practice of hesitating over the purchase of books. Once at home, I threw myself onto the sofa with the newly-won treasure and began to let that energetic and gloomy genius operate upon me . . . Here I saw a mirror in which I beheld the world, life and my own nature in a terrifying grandeur . . . here I saw sickness and health, exile and refuge, Hell and Heaven.”But there was no time, that evening in the Brockhauses’ salon, to speak further of Schopenhauer, for what Nietzsche described as Wagner’s spirals of language, his genius for shaping clouds, his whirling, hurling and twirling through the air, his everywhere and nowhere, were hurtling on.The letter continues:“After [dinner] he [Wagner] read an extract from his autobiography which he is now writing, an utterly delightful scene from his Leipzig student days, of which he still cannot think without laughing; he writes too with extraordinary skill and intelligence. Finally, when we were both getting ready to leave, he warmly shook my hand and invited me with great friendliness to visit him, in order to make music and talk philosophy; also, he entrusted to me the task of familiarising his sister and his kinsmen with his music, which I have now solemnly undertaken to do. You will hear more when I can see this evening somewhat more objectively and from a distance. For today, a warm farewell and best wishes for your health. F.N.” Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Complicated man, complicated book. Felt like I was riding down a bumpy road, sometimes lost and backtracking and wondering who was speaking. Back seat driver? Passenger? The driver?Great vocabulary, filled with data, but delivered with a somewhat jarring presentation. Several times the book appears to be ending but bounces back onto the road again.It began apparently linear but then threw in flashbacks, flash forwards flashes sideways and flashes of flash.Sometimes the book was speaking about him, other times speaking for him or speaking with him and including a multitude of his quotes in between.The author appears to have expert, In depth knowledge of Nietzsche and has probably read all his books. A lot of self-editorializing. Nietzsche’s quotes are embedded in the author’s analysis and opinion of what he is attempting to communicate about Nietzsche. At times it felt like a lecture embedded in a book review and history lesson.Paraphrasing one of the author’s statements… Nietzsche was always crazy; the difference was the degree of craziness and at what times. My opinion: Like many geniuses his brain was wired differently. I’d recommend the book, but you may want to read it a couple or more times for complete digestion. I know I’ll need at least one more read.

⭐This is an excellent biography for understanding the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, which is not easy to follow and is further clouded by numerous calumnies against the philosopher over the last century and a half. And it is worthwhile to understand him. Nietzsche is the most important Western philosopher since he published his first book in 1872, 150 years ago this year. Important? He is the singularly most influential thinker in Western thought and his ideas also inspired important works of art, music and literature. So yeah, important.Sue Prideaux’s biography is eminently readable and entertaining, although it is also a serious work of criticism in its own right. “I Am Dynamite!” won the 2019 Hawthornden Prize, a British literary award.

⭐Frederick Nietzsche was born in Saxony in 1833. His father was a pious clergyman who died insane at a young age. His mother was a good woman who was religious and took good care of the family finances. Nietzsche was closest to his sibling Elizabeth. They had a stormy relationship later in life; she married Bernard Fischer a notorious anti-Semite following him t a German a-Anti-Jewish colony in Paraguay. Nietzsche wrote several books which did not sell well during his short lifetime. Among them “Human All Too Human, The Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spake Zarathusta. He expressed himself best through the use of witty and cogent aphorisms expressive of his scientific atheistic beliefs. He believed in the superman concept and the idea that God is dead. His philosophy influenced the Nazi movement and Hitler attended his sister’s funeral. He broke with composer Richard Wagner after a long friendship. He wandered over Europe especially Switzerland, Germany and Italy. He taught at the University of Basel being appointed to the faculty at the early age of 24. Prideaux discusses his love affair with Lou Solomon a Russian woman and explores several of his close friendships. He never married and died insane. A good book which taught me a lot about an important Western thinker.

⭐Honestly, I think Nietzsche, for all his influence and genius was, himself, a kinda dry guy and German in the best possible & positive way. It was nice to see him rescued from his Nazi-loving sister (he would’ve hated how he was used) and, on religion basically all he was saying is “You’re doing it wrong.” He deserves to be remembered for his originality, brilliance, and bravery – but (I think) his brilliance was in applying a poetic understanding to traditional philosophy. But this is biography of a guy who led a frequently very difficult, life (thru little fault of his own). On a similar subject I probably enjoyed “The Existentialist’s Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age” by Gordon Marino more but maybe because I’m more of a generalist. Really good bio of Nietzsche I thought.

⭐The multi-award winning biographer Sue Prideaux has produced a sympathetic and easy to understand biography of a complicated man. Nietzsche knew his ideas could and would be misrepresented, and the author does great service to his legacy by carefully documenting the intent and meaning behind the formidable and forward looking ideas he espoused, as well as the evolution of his thought. She also masterfully captures a time of rapid change and the feast of ideas and revolution of thought between the 19th and 20th centuries. Nietzsche’s relationships with his family, mentors and adversaries are also covered in a fascinating way, providing the feel of a novel or thriller rather than the typical staid biography many treatments give. The love of nature and humanitarian qualities in Nietzsche shine here, as well as the ultimate personal tragedy of the man. It is a fitting biography of a giant who, through the gift of his intellect, is with us still – and a very personal tale of a human being, both tragic and sublime.

⭐This biography is a revelation, rejecting many of the myths surrounding Nietzshe’s life. It is an irony that the creator of macho ideas such as “Master Morality” and the Superman was, in real life, in very poor health during most of his life, ending in insanity. The biographer also makes it clear that though he was surrounded by proto-Nazis such as Richard Wagner and Bernard Forster, Nietzshe rejected their master-race obseesions and anti-Semitism (although he seemed to underestimate their danger for the future)My main criticism (and the reason I deduct 1 star ) is that the book does not explain what in his life led to his hostility to conventional Christianity. His objection was not the usual ones, that it was hypocritical or irrational, but his unusual notion that Chrisitianity represented decadent “slave morality” . What led him to this concept?

⭐I had heard the Author on R4 and her reasons for wanting to write the book. ie get to understand the man and his ideas and disentangle his later misuse to justify all sorts of nasty things, was the same as mine. I’d struggled for years to really get a handle on what he was about. So I was pleased to read this excellent book which goes a long way to clarifying and bringing in to focus the man and his thought processes. It also paints a very clear picture of his relationships and how they shaped his ideas for good or ill or in the case of his sister rewrote them. I ended up really liking the man Nietzsche as well as sympathising with many of his insights and refusal to be dogmatic. And the account of his last days made me weep.One of the best non fiction books I’ve read in the last 5 years. Worth every one of its five stars !

⭐Excellent biography of one of the most influential men of modern times. Maybe if you have found Nietzsche too difficult to get into in any meaningful way then this could be the place to start. Time and place, the small details of a life, I find often flesh out a “philosophy” that proves difficult to understand in its raw form – and the almost staccato, aphoristic style of Nietzsche’s writings invite either incomprehension or, worse, misunderstanding. Sue Prideaux weaves the challenge that Nietzsche poses to us “moderns” into his life story, and does it well.I never really knew just how much Nietzsche suffered health wise, both intestinal and with his vision. Again, just how much he moved around, throughout Europe.His sister Elizabeth is presented here as the villain of the piece and undoubtedly she was, misrepresenting Nietzsche’s thoughts; while he was still alive, yet mad, but more so after his death. Nietzsche as the “forerunner” of the Nazi’s was the product of Elizabeth’s lack of insight, deliberate misrepresentations, and simplifications. So much so that, as Sue Prideaux says:- “Ernst Krieck, a prominent Nazi ideologue, sarcastically remarked that apart from the fact that Nietzsche was not a socialist, not a nationalist and opposed to racial thinking, he could have been a leading National Socialist thinker.” What came across to me was a certain fragility to the man, a vulnerability. Maybe just the way I read it. Whatever, his life and writings are a genuine challenge and this book is an excellent place to begin facing them, even if we eventually decide to discard most if not all.I shall continue to seek to relate his thought to so called “eastern” ways.Recommended.

⭐This excellent book brings alive the life and works of Friedrich Nietzsche. This philosopher has become a titan of left-wing philosophy, often quoted and heralded as the man who destroyed God and Judeo-Christianity. The book traces Nietzsche’s life, his struggle with his health, both physical and mental. It presents the man in the context of his time and place, the narrative capturing both personal and professional anguish and a determination to become recognised as a great thinker.As the young Professor of Philology at Basel University at the age of 24, he struggled to be thought of as a philosopher. His early friendship with Richard Wagner, his subsequent falling out and his wanderings all reveal a mind in torment. His infatuation with the bewitching Lou Salome offers a fascinating insight into the mind of a naïve, immature psyche, who could not cope with her rejecting his advances. Instead, it produced some misogynistic attitudes and resentments towards his own sister and mother.Nietzsche wrote his philosophical masterpieces ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ and ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ whilst in physical and mental agony. The philosophies attacked God and were based on a Darwinian ‘survival of the species’ narrative. Not only is his stance nihilistic, it is based on the same politics of resentment that we are seeing promoted in the 2020’s. Destroying God as an object of adoration and worship has not destroyed that desire, but simply transferred it onto modern day Gods – namely, Man and the Planet.Nietzsche lost his mind and a lot of his philosophy was born of personal immaturity – a man who tipped into megalomania and who considered himself the anti-Christ. A man who did not recover from the death of his father, had delusions of grandeur and an unhealthy sexual relationship with his sister. A man who could not cope with being rebuffed by an amoral woman, who herself seduced many men including Sigmund Freud. It is no surprise that his turbulent life path became so personally destructive, based as it was on the French word ‘ressentiment’, something akin to jealousy and resentment. Nietzsche’s insistence on replacing God with the Übermensch (Superman) became the mantra for progressive ideologies. However, such hubris has damaged social cohesion because not everyone agrees with this thesis.I highly recommend Sue Prideaux’s ‘I am Dynamite’ as a terrific read, full of colour and verve. It is a delight to read such an entertaining and informative book, especially because of its relevance to our lives in the twenty-first century.

⭐I found this book a good read and lived up to its title. Although there is an outline of Nietzsche’s philosophy this emerges from the life story rather than being tackled separately in itself. A good intro to his sometimes difficult to grasp ideas but you would need to choose a specifically philosophical text for more depth.I felt the book brought out clearly that Nietzsche was not a precursor to the National Socialists – this was a gross distortion arising from his sister’s deep seated anti-semitism. From an historical perspective it also gave an insight into the pervasive anti-semitic attitudes which laid the groundwork for subsequent events in Germany.

⭐Superb. This very well researched biography concentrates on Nietzsche”s background and private life rather than his ideas, in other words the events that went into the making of the Man. Education, home life, relationship with Wagners and others etc. anybody interested in the man will find fascination, delightful detail and insight on every page. Very revealing in showing how background events may have shaped his thinking.

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