Customer Reviews

The Nietzsche Reader (Blackwell Readers)

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This reader is an astonishing achievement. There is simply no other single text that can provide such great appreciation for the development of Nietzsche's thought and the breadth of his ideas. This text can be used easily by a person looking to choose to read a first full book by Nietzsche, and it provides reliable guidance for the reader seeking to progress through Nietzsche's corpus. The book could work easily in a college course on Nietzsche, supplemented by one or more complete works. The bibliography is superb, and the introductory materials are intelligent, balanced in their approach, and helpful. Even the specialist stands to gain something from careful review of the selections so as to more fully appreciate the challenging editorial decisions that produced this terrific book. For example, this book--more than any other reader, and more than any single book written by Nietzsche--allows one to see how the idea of eternal recurrence emerged and acquired greater significance in his writings. It is an outstanding value both economically and intellectually.

People who study Nietzsche seriously will tell you that Nietzsche is one of the hardest philosophers to interpret. In many places he gives off the feeling that he actually does have a grand and epic master system that all of his philosophic efforts are aimed at - and in some places this sentiment comes straight from his own pen. [Nietzsche's retrospective work 'Ecce Homo' is a good place to look for these hints] However, much more of the time Nietzsche's writings taken together look contradictory, hypocritical, even confused. Deciding how to balence one's interpretation of Nietzsche while respecting each of these considerations is a weighty challenge.

The biggest strength of Pearson's and Large's new complilation is, in my opinion, the respect they reveal for this basic roadblock to understanding Nietzsche in the selections they have chosen. The selections allow for even a novice reader to find and explore the connections and through-lines that do exist within the entire canon of Nietzsche's writings (published, unpublished, and early, middle and latter periods of Nietsche's philosophic career) while still bringing out the main points of contention that serve to challenge those connections.

There are two common forms of misunderstandings regarding Nietzsche's views and positions: the first is quick dismissal based on only superficial contradictions, the second occurs when one projects onto Nietzsche views he does not advocate for the sake of unity and consistancy. This 'Reader' presents Nietzsche in such a way that encourages the avoidance of either of these two extremes, and as such is an ideal choice for students who have gotten a little taste of Nietzsche's thought and are eager to explore his range more seriously. The Introductions to the sections are full of useful historical information and the intrepretive hints Pearson and Large offer are clear enough to be accessible while at the same time pointed enough to be provoking. If you are a serious student of Nietzsche you're probably more interested in buying the complete versions of his works, but if you are new to Nietzsche, the richness and breadth of this compilation is probably the best place on the market to dive in and get your bearings (especially for the price!).

This text is as good as it gets as far as Nietzsche readings go. No other volumes on him have been updated recently, and this one is very accessible. Highly recommended for all levels of interest.

If one is willing to deal with this kind of large, unwieldy and heavy book, and if one wants an edition with material selected from every period of Nietzsche's life (from the early years of Nietzsche's philosophizing to several of his last letters, then this is a decent enough purchase. Certainly the price is very low for a nearly 600 page Blackwell paperback.

The book contains material from every important Nietzschean text, as well as bits from inaccessible pieces and some letters. These are organized chronologically rather than thematically, divided into 5 sections (e.g., Beginnings, Early Writings, the Middle Period, Zarathrustra, and Late Writings), which are introduced by the editors Duncan Large and Keith Ansell Pearson. There's a comprehensive bibliography, organized thematically.

But I don't care for the editors' take on philosophy in general and Nietzsche in particular. Their biases (caveat: I don't know Large's work well but I have read more than plenty of Ansell Pearson's) in favour of what one can broadly call the Deleuze and Foucault tradition are disappointing to me, because I think the virtues of the general post-war French treatment of Nietzsche are overrated, and unsatisfactory when not mistaken. This means I didn't appreciate the various section introductions, much of which is straight out of Continental Philosophy for Dummies (if no such text exists, one should be invented, pronto). Then there are the elementary errors: e.g., in the General Introduction the editors say that they agree with Michel ("one of the preeminent intellectual figures of the post-war period", a telling phrase) Foucault that there is no single or core Nietzscheanism. Maybe not. But across the page they then speak of this very core: "at the center of Nietzsche's thought"... (Note: for the 'great' French thinker, the truth of something is always subordinate to how this something can be used by Foucault for whatever project he is engaged in. Perhaps the editors have taken this to heart....)

There are drawbacks, too: the weight and size of it, the philosophical slant given by the editors, and of course the fact that it consists of selections (e.g., about 15 pages from Daybreak and about 30 from The Gay Science). Selections are never the best way to go, if only because this means one has to rely on the editorial nous and philosophical temperament, which I'm unwilling to do in the case of these two editors. And reading a selection is unnecessary when dealing with Nietzsche, not when his unabridged works are widely available. So I would encourage readers to stick with the individual editions of the works(Cambridge especially but also Oxford or Penguin). I suppose this work is handy to have if one's books are not all in the same place (e.g., keeping this one at the office and other Nietzsche books at home). But even so, I'd give it a miss.

On the other hand, a book that does look very important indeed, for Nietzsche readers, though it is prohibitively expensive until the paperback edition comes out, is Ansell Pearson's A Companion to Niezsche. I may not care for the philosophical contributions of the editor but he has ensured that many of the best and most important Nietzsche scholars and experts have contributed essays to the book.

got my book on time, in great condition. Great read, I'd highly recommend for anyone who's getting into Nietzsche, the editors does an excellent job of breaking down his thought and I guess you could say almost spoon feeding it to you but still, for this material and its difficulty, that's not such a bad thing. So far from what I can tell, I'd say the editors are about the best Nietzsche scholars ive seen.

This is a great book. Required for my class. You can probably find this book a few bucks cheaper. I rather pay the extra dough and save on time and hassle wasted like waiting in line during the beginning days of school or waiting for the auction to end or hoping the seller ships your book to get it before the beginning weeks of class. Just save time and sanity and purchase from amazon.