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Thus Spake Zarathustra (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
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About Thus Spake Zarathustra
Product Description This astonishing series of aphorisms, put into the mouth of the Persian sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, contains the kernel of Nietzsche's thought. 'God is dead', he tells us. Christianity is decadent, leading mankind into a slave morality concerned not with this life, but with the next. Nietzsche emphasises the 'Ubermensch, or Superman, whose will to power makes him the creator of a new heroic mentality. The intensely felt ideas are expressed in prose-poetry of indefinable beauty. Review , also translated as Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Treatise by Friedrich Nietzsche, written in four parts and published in German between 1883 and 1885 as Also sprach Zarathustra. The work is incomplete, but it is the first thorough statement of Nietzsche's mature philosophy and the masterpiece of his career. It received little attention during his lifetime but its influence since his death has been considerable, in the arts as well as philosophy. Written in the form of a prose narrative, Thus Spake Zarathustra offers the philosophy of its author through the voice of Zarathustra (based on the Persian prophet Zoroaster) who, after years of meditation, has come down from a mountain to offer his wisdom to the world. It is this work in which Nietzsche made his famous (and much misconstrued) statement that "God is dead" and in which he presented some of the most influential and well-known (and likewise misunderstood) ideas of his philosophy, including those of the Ubermensch ("overman" or "superman") and the "will to power." Though this is essentially a work of philosophy, it is also a masterpiece of literature. The book is a combination of prose and poetry, including epigrams, dithyrambs, and parodies as well as sections of pure poetry. --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature About the Author Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on 15 October 1844 in Prussia. He was named after King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth. Nietzsche's parents were Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–49), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher, and Franziska Oehler (1826–97). Nietzsche attended a boys' school, and later, a private school. In 1854, he began to attend Pforta in Naumburg, but after he showed particular talents in music and language, the internationally recognised Schulpforta admitted him as a pupil, and here he continued his studies from 1858 to 1864, finding time to work on poems and musical compositions, in addition to his academic work. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important introduction to literature, particularly ancient Greek and Roman literature, and for the first time he experienced a distance from his family life in a small-town environment. After graduation in 1864 Nietzsche commenced studies in theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn. After one semester, and to the anger of his mother, he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. Nietzsche then concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, and reading the works of philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Albert Lange. In part, because of Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received a remarkable offer in 1869 to become professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received his teaching certificate. Despite the fact that the offer came at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel. Although he is best known as a nineteenth century German philosopher and classical philologist, he wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism
