Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (Modern Library (Hardcover)) by Friedrich Nietzsche (PDF)

Description

Friedrich Nietzsche’s most accessible and influential philosophical work, misquoted, misrepresented, brilliantly original and enormously influential, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale in Penguin Classics. Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche’s utterance ‘God is dead’, his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free. Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche’s influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable. If you enjoyed Thus Spoke Zarathustra you might like Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, also available in Penguin Classics. ‘Enigmatic, vatic, emphatic, passionate, often breathtakingly insightful, his works together make a unique statement in the literature of European ideas’ A. C. Grayling

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: 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 11 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.Walter Kaufmann was a philosopher and poet, as well as a renowned translator of Friedrich Nietzsche. His books include Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, From Shakespeare to Existentialism, and Existentialism: From Dostoevsky to Sartre. He was a Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught after receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1947 until his death in 1980. He held visiting appointments at many American and foreign universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Heidelberg, Jerusalem, and the Australian National University, and his books have been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

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

⭐Ever since reading Nietzsche for the first time, I’ve gotten super pretentious. Still haven’t learned how to spell Nietzsche without using autocorrect though, so I should probably buy and read more.

⭐I was sent the wrong edition of this book. I ordered the Hollingdale translation of Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra, but in its place I received the Kaufmann translation. These two translations are quite different. Walter Kaufmann’s policy was to reduce what he viewed as Nietzsche’s melodrama. In doing so, he removed most of the music of Nietzsche’s language. He also changed the line breaks, making the poetic form of the original into ordinary paragraphs. Etc., etc. In effect, my order was not filled.

⭐When Nietzsche wrote Thus Spake Zarathustra he had finished with trying to topple the idols of nineteenth century civilization: the market, the monarchies, academia and the Church had all received the blows of his literary hammer.Now he turns to describing life after the demolition. Arguing that man is just another animal and has no soul, he thought that the laws of science, mathematics and even logic were not eternally binding rules of the universe but simply repetitions recorded by the senses. Thus, he discovers that the Ubermensch must legislate his owns rules for life; just as Zarathustra originally created a vision of the moral universe, this new Zarathustra legislates a law for himself. This is the supreme meaning of the “will to power”—not so much to exert power over others as to create a universe for yourself.I think a helpful analogy is to think of Nietzsche and Monotheism as two paths: Monotheism believes man has a rational soul that can discover moral, logical and scientific rules that are perennially true. Nietzsche thought that each man must create rules that were binding on himself and his particular experience of the universe. Most of us end up borrowing parts of both and accept inconsistency.Nietzsche’s later biography might be read as a warning against this thought. This is fair, but one should also consider that few men have penetrated the consequences of death of the idols as thoroughly as Nietzsche. It hardly needs a recommendation, but I was fascinated by this man’s effort to create and live in a world of his own making. Must reading for those interested in experiments on the human condition.

⭐For those who are a) not merely peace seekers but bliss seekers who are ready to risk peace for bliss and b) willing to use this book for introspection not merely for formula mimicking, this book can bring them to exceptional heights and depths.

⭐When I saw “Thus Spake Zarathustra” by Dover at $2.5, new, sold through Prime, I thought it was a great deal. But that “Spake” in the title should have been a red flag…I missed it. If you want to add Shakespearean English to an already difficult text, then go for Dover Edition, translated in 1911 by T. Common. But if you want a modern English version, so you can focus on the meaning of the sentences rather than making an effort to translate the translation to modern English, then go for the Hollingdale 1969 translation by Penguin Classics instead. The example below suffices:Dover: “‘Lo! Now hath the world become perfect!’ -thus thinketh every woman when she obeyeth with all her love.”Penguin: “‘Behold, now the world has become perfect!’ -thus thinks every woman when she obeys with all her love.”Pages after pages full of old style prose that gets tiring after 10 pages (the archaic word “obeyeth” no longer even appears in any dictionary). I won’t return the Dover’s book because, at a couple of dollars, is not worth my trip to USPS. But I just purchased the Penguin classics for $8 (used, acceptable condition).

⭐If you are interested in philosophy, and haven’t read this, I definitely recommend it for your list. An easy read but generates some deep thoughts. I liked the first and second sections of the book best, with the third being Zaruthustra talking to himself, and the fourth some more advanced items. For me, the true value was in the initial statements, and their role in driving your thoughts about human interaction forward.

⭐Very compelling, very well written. This is considered Nietzsche’s magnum opus. A very powerful text indeed, albeit a bit egotistic for my taste as I find it strange to write a character in your own perspective that goes intellectually unchallenged throughout his journey by any and all. This text makes one question oneself and challenge your own values, your own perspective on life, faith, society and everything in between. While this is an important work of his, personally I believe that Antichrist was his most important work and certainly the most powerful text Christianity has ever come up against. Zarathustra was indeed a good read, even though I consider myself religious I am not so close-minded as to disregard Nietzsche because of that.

⭐Great quality print and cover, small enough to read in waiting room or train but does not strain the eyes. The introduction is excellent. I cannot comment on the quality of translation but I enjoyed reading it.

⭐Received ‘Home Science – class 12’ book instead. Nice troll, Amazon

⭐Not an easy book to get through from beginning to end, but still a monumental contribution to continental and critical philosophy, and indeed western literature. This isn’t necessarily the first (or only) book you should read by Nietzsche (that would be Genealogy of Morals and Birth of Tragedy), but certainly not the last.Once acquainted with the revolutionary, psychological and discourse based method of Nietzsche, this work is the perfect example of that method as applied to Christianity, western philosophy and ethics. It certainly laid the groundwork for Freud, Foucault and others – and here above all he is the true ‘master of suspicion’ in revealing the bitterness, bad faith and hypocrisy of standard, bourgeois moral reasoning. In that sense, Nietzsche is right when he claims in other work to be the successor to Voltaire and that Zarathustra is the successor of Candide. However, what skills he has in lyricism, he generally lacks in satire and humour. Nietzsche tries, he really tries, but is not a funny man – maybe it’s the old translation?However, as a master of suspicion, it’s only right to turn that suspicion back on the author. Of course, he was a sick and unloved man, at odds with his time and resentful for that reason. He’s a wannabe aristocrat without means or a true understanding of the steam engine or the telegraph. Therefore, as much as his tainted image comes from his obscure style and later misuse of his work, it has kernel of truth. There might be no direct line to National Socialism (Nietzsche would have fared more honourable than Heidegger – and would have despised their murderous nationalism and racism, thuggishness and obscurantism), but there is a line to thinkers like Gabriele D’Annunzio and Julius Evola that can’t be denied.It’s bad faith and hypocrisy – and as such bad thinking and bad living – that his disgust (disgust at the modern world being a key mark of the superman) for the ‘mob’ comes from. We might call them ‘normies’ or ‘sheeple’ today. Nietzsche’s anti-egalitarianism has to be read in light of his views on hypocrisy, and so there is key parallel to what Marx says about bourgeois hypocrisy, “This sphere that we are deserting, within whose boundaries the sale and purchase of labour-power goes on, is in fact a very Eden of the innate rights of man. There alone rule Freedom, Equality, Property and Bentham.”Today, the (liberal) left and right clearly share, if not the same moral assumptions, then the same meta-moral assumptions about methodology and reasoning, and a lack of true criticiality in how these assumptions are viewed – Nietzsche was right about that. In that sense, Nietzsche’s ‘transvaluation of values’ is closer to the neo-Aristotelianism of ‘virtue ethics’ than Russell’s quip about ‘conquerors who speak Greek’. Hence, Schopenhauer, as the ‘Soothsayer’ is almost chief among the devils, but pride of place goes to Wagner, the ‘Sorcerer’.There is no engagement with Hegel in Nietzsche, or the ‘societal ethics’ of Philosophy of Right – but it is clear to me that the personal and psychological ‘hypocrisy’ Nietzsche identifies in this book, rather than a call to capitalistic individualism and philosophical subjectivism, was a warning about the type of people who are about to start the twentieth century. It was a fork in the road between industrial slaughter and pseudo-religious obscurantism that Nietzsche could sense, but as the poetry of this work shows, could not articulate clearly. It was a fork growing wider in 1890 that would be obliterated in 1914. As per the ‘eternal recurrence’, one of the most difficult ideas in Nietzsche’s work and in this book, we can’t go back to 1914, but we can spiral back as different people and turn the wheel again.

⭐Before writing ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ Nietzsche wrote to his friend in a letter that he did not have a single reason to live even tomorrow, he was extremely despondent at that time. From the ‘understanding’ of this chaotic phase of his life this book came out in existence.”To give birth to a dancing star you need chaos in your soul.”It is the most misunderstood book in human history : this is the book from which Nazis had taken their whole philosophy for the world war second.This is one of the profoundest books ever created in western philosophy and religion.Even If Nietzsche had not written anything else except Zarathustra, he would have served humanity immensely – more cannot be expected from any man.The whole book is over-rich in music, it has to be sung, rather than read.”The highest hope to go beyond oneself” – this is the spirit of the book.”Man is something that has to be overcome. What have you done to overcome man ?”The whole book is mysteriously poetic and extremely extraordinary and of the highest caliber, therefore demand a great deal of understanding.Nietzsche doesn’t write for children. Scholars cannot understand him : he despises scholars. Only those who are ready to burn in their own flame are able to understand him.I don’t know why people give so much importance to “the idea of death of God and eternal recurrence” because both these things are really trivial if you see the whole book’s content.And most important thing – to understand the whole book and its very soul, one will have to study OSHO’s commentary on this book. Only Osho has described the very essence of ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra.’ One can download OSHO’s commentary books in PDF through Google. They are two books : first book’s name is “Zarathustra – A God that can dance” and second book’s name is “Zarathustra – The Laughing Prophet”.There is something mysterious that can’t be defined in words : the spirit of the book is completely inexpressible. One can feel it, live with it but can’t capture it in words.Meditate over it, it will pay you immensely.

⭐I’m not sure that this book would be the best place to start if you want an intro to Nietzsche – the book can be difficult to read due to the style and it might not be easy to parse Nietzsche’s philosophy from this text. I’d recommend reading “Beyond good and evil” by Nietzsche or “Hiking with Nietzsche” by John Kaag prior to this book.

⭐Don’t buy it.The book is legendary but print quality is very very very poor.Also the price tag is unreasonable for such a poor quality print.Paper feels cheaper than low quality toilet paper and Amazon,you should be ashamed of yourself for making money without a dignity.

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