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The Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library)

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"The Portable Nietzsche" contains four complete works, including Nietzsche's most famous - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - along with excerpts from his other books and writings, painting a detailed portrait of the life of this intriguing genius. The translation is wonderful, as the fury and passion that makes Nietzsche's philosophy so popular bursts through in Kaufmann's words.

Obviously, this work is a challenge to understand, and even after several readings one will still be finding new insights hidden within Nietzsche's words. The works contained within this book are decidely anti-Christian, so be forewarned.

Overall, this is a great introduction to Nietzsche, contained in a compact and reasonably-priced single volume.

I once heard that the two main philosophers that are the most widely read by non-philosopher types are Nietzsche & Plato (not necessarily in that order). After reading this book and some of Plato's better dialogues, it is not difficult to understand why. Both write with a passion & provide a remarkable contrast to the incredibly dry (and many times verbose) prose of such philosophers as Aristotle, Hegel, Heidegger and Kant. If nothing else, Plato and Nietzsche are EXCITING to read. It is this which furnishes them with their popularity - even more than the fact that they are two of the greatest intellectuals who ever lived.

Like all "portable" books in the Viking series, this one contains excerpts from works. This is not all bad, but it is not all good, either. I have always felt that it is much better to read works in their entirety rather than edited snippets. With this in mind, the book's #1 virtue is the fact that it contains an excellent complete & unabridged translation of "Also Sprach Zarathustra."

In his book "Beyond Good And Evil" Nietzsche stated that "Books for all the world are always foul-smelling books: the smell of small people clings to them." (p. 43, Walter Kaufmann, translator). Well, if this be the case, then "Zarathustra" is most decidedly NOT a book for all the world. It is not written for (nor, indeed is even read by very often) individuals with small minds. It is an epic poem that was mostly written while this German fellow was stoned on opium. That fact not-withstanding, it is an astounding achievement. (It seems that Nietzsche produced some of his best art while he was influenced by opium - just like Edgar Allen Poe and Hector Berlioz).

"Zarathustra" is a work that is of interest to both philosophy & literary types. It would be entirely justified for this work to be read in a German or World literature class as opposed to being confined to just university level philosophy courses. Due to his trenchant insights on art as well as his awe inspiring ideas and wonderful command of language, it is little mystery that Nietzsche exercised such a profound influence over such artists as Thomas Mann, William Butler Yeats, Franz Kafka, George Bernard Shaw, Maria Ranier Rilke and Eugene O'Neill (among others).

Again much like Plato's Republic, "Zarathustra" is a work which must be read at least a half dozen times before one can really say he or she has read it once. The imagery and metaphors are dense & it is beautifully written - even in translation (Kaufmann deserves much credit for this). The elegance of Nietzsche and the grandiose and fervent style of his thoughts has made him an attractive figure to engage - even by those who disagree with most of or everything he has to say. But perhaps there is one single thing that I like about Mr. Nietzsche more than anything else; indeed, this is why I keep on coming back to him again & again. It is the fact that he does not expect or even want you to agree with what he says. Rather, he wants you to re-think what you believe & challenge the premises that your beliefs stand upon. In doing so (and Kaufmann has argued this point as well), he wants above all else for his reader to grow.

This tremendous volume is what gave me confidence that philosophy was not only accessible to me, but more than just academic abstraction.

Critics who say that Nietzsche is "obvious" often miss the fact that his thinking was once considered blasphemous & unheard of. In an era that he felt was bogged down in nostalgia & blandness driven by mindless veneration, Nietzsche felt compelled to state what he thought people were denying. If you don't get this, then you won't see how he is still relevant today in a similar era of chronic rehashing of old values whose uselessness is forgotten or hidden by the varnishing given them in a post-global world. In fact, part of Nietzsche's challenge to thinking man is that the "obvious" without critical faculties hides untapped potential. It is only your attitude that is "obvious". This is the crux of his idea of the "reoccurring theme": do you use nostalgia as reflection? Restoration? Irrelevance? Do you go beyond it? Or do you sit idly fawning & worshipping it like a permanent acolyte; never going beyond the instruction manual? An early insight & major clue is given at the VERY BEGINING of this book in a "Letter To His Sister". In a reply to a comment she made about truth being "obvious", his answer condenses to a statement that NOTHING is "obvious" until someone WORKS IT OUT first in the course of human history.

Nietzsche even had the foresight to see that his concise style would be often quoted without being truly understood, and he frequently says so in many writings included here. This is why this volume is so indispensible (i.e. you might flatter yourself that you KNOW Nietzsche, but you probably don't unless you've poured over him for awhile and had a "re-evaluation of all values" with his works). Ironically, he wanted it that way because he realized that the subtle is more often than not lost within style. Fortunately, he was a writer of BOTH great style AND substance; his style goes down easy while his substance is difficult, and this is the great misunderstanding of reading Nietzsche.

Tragically, Nietzsche's statement ,God is dead, is easily quoted out of context by anyone wishing to re-establish blind belief in unquestioned authority by ripping him apart as simply an apologist for uncontrolled libertinism. Nothing is further from the truth, because the original, full statement (here quoted in its pre-Zarathustra form in the tale of "The Madman" as well) is "God is dead. WE HAVE KILLED HIM YOU & I..." It is a broadside to the quote from the Bible saying "God is love": we are capable of killing love, we can crush people's spirits & guilt, AFTER THE FACT, as preached by religion, is too late to undo memory. "Forgive & forget?" If forgiving takes forgetting, we will all wind up as amnesiacs...

Fortunately, Walter Kaufmann is an excellent translator and guide. Much of his annotation in this book is as priceless as the philosopher himself.

This is an essential volume of philosophy, and only as "obvious" as the reader.

Nietzsche stands as one of my favourite philosophers, and thinkers, alongside David Hume, and others. What makes "The Portable Nietzsche" so great, is in part accredited to Kaufmann's excellent translations, especially in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". He captures the eloquence of Nietzsche's message and creates a smooth transition from German to English. If you are at all interested in Nietzsche, or would like to become more aquainted with his works I highly recommend this book. I must also agree with other reviewers that "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" must be read several times, though I suggest the first read to be casual, and to add scrutiny and critical thinking with each successive read.

Unlike a great deal of philosophers who appear stodgy, Nietzsche infuses his work with passion and fervour. His words are thought provoking, and in my case, life altering in a positive way. I don't know what else to say, other than this;

If you have had the urge to know more about Nietzsche and his works, continue on with it. I consider The Portable Nietzsche more of a manual of life than a collection of theories. For the most part, Nietzsche is the voice of common sense, but he would rather have you decide for yourself, I believe. Nietzsche is not for the faint of heart, however, and is shrouded in controversy over various topics, including, but not limited to religion, sexism and others.

In my opinion, the open minded reap the most benefit from Nietzsche's words.

This one- volume anthology contains much of the most important writing of Nietzsche, the full text of ' Thus Spake Zarathustra', 'Twilight of the Idols', 'The AntiChrist','Nietzsche contra Wagner'. It also contains selections from his other books, notes and letters.
In his introduction Kaufmann surveys the life and work of Nietzsche and makes an effort to place him historically. For Kaufmann Nietzsche is the spiritual father of much of modern analytic and existensial philosophy. He is one of the first thinkers to as Kaufmann sees it bring about the seperation of religious faith from philosphy. He is the thinker whose work was distorted by his sister and misused by the Nazis. For Kaufman Nietzsche is a fundamentally apolitical figure whose fundamental emphasis is on the development of the individual. And the heros of Nietzsche according to Kaufmann are great figures of mind and passion. Thus Kaufmann perhaps not completely successfully seeks to whitewash Nietzsche of negative effects of the ' superman' concept and of the ' beyond good and evil' celebration of a morality which conceivably could be taken, and was, to justify the most evil and cruel of human actions.
Nietzsche is one of the most brilliant of all philosophical writers, and the epigramatic aphoristical and paradoxical character of his writing makes it often seem more a form of poetry than of philosophy. Kaufmann traces the stylistic stages of his development from the essay form of 'The Birth of Tragedy'to the aphoristic form of 'Human, All-too Human and then on to the rhapsody, satire and epigram of Zarathustra, and the brilliant sarcasm of ' The Wagner Case'. He compiled notes for 'The Will to Power' which he never wrote, and on the same day in hislatter years finished ' The Antichrist' on what Kaufmann calls a 'high pitched note of rhetoric ' and wrote in relative calm the preface for ' The Twilight of Idols.'
Reading Neitzsche is at once a startling, surprising exciting disturbing and in some way confusing and confounding experience. He is often so brilliant and so unexpected that one wonders how he could possibly have written what he has. At the same time is thought is often contemptible and insulting as in his aphorisms on women. The great underlying themes of Nietzche, eternal recurrence, the going beyond good and evil, the coming of the Superman, the supposed death of God, the revaluation of values all it seems to me are problematic and in some cases wrong. This is perhaps only my way of seeing it, but I value Nietzsche more as brilliant literary artist than I do as thinker. My own judgment is that Nietzsche's extreme condemnation of Christian values, his concern for an elite few and contempt for the many are completely wrongheaded.
Thus the pleasure I take in reading Nietzsche even under Kaufmann's expert guidance is a guilty and difficult one. His literary greatness is unassailable and there is much to be said in favor of his humane attitudes and courage ( especially in regard to his break with Wagner) but the ideas at the heart of his thought are not those with which a kind and wise, a loving and good, a creative and caring Mankind can live with.

Just about everything worth saying about this volume has been said by the other reviewers. A few points are worth reiterating, however. First of all, Walter Kaufmann is a god. I read some of Nietzsche's writings in German while I was in college and, unlike most English-speaking reviewers, I can honestly say that Kaufmann's translation is superb. Kaufmann's editing is equally brilliant, and I recommend that the beginner follow the editor's advice and read this book cover to cover. Only then can one grasp the development of Nietzsche's thought in the manner Kaufmann intended.

Another reviewer ... found it necessary to fault Kaufmann for overemphasizing "those bits which show Nietz. At his most un-Nazi-ish." It's true that Kaufmann takes this approach, however it's not really a fault considering the circumstances of the book's first appearance. This collection was introduced within a decade of the end of World War II. At that time, Nietzsche's reputation in America was badly in need of rehabilitation, having suffered from the taint of Nazi appropriation. In fact, because of the paucity of good translations and informed commentary prior to Kaufmann, Nietzsche was never really habilitated in the first place in the English speaking world. From this perspective, Wilson's criticism appears to be misplaced.

My second point is directed at Nietzsche neophytes. Just about everyone is familiar with the handful of pithy Nietzsche quotes that have found their way into the popular consciousness: "God is dead," and "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" come to mind. I even saw an anarchist website one time that exhorted viewers to mine Nietzsche's books for "cool quotes"! (N. must be rolling in his grave  again!). The point to be made here is that, like the Bible, Nietzsche's work can be quoted to support just about any point of view on any topic  such is the breadth of his thought. But very few of these snippets carry their intended meaning unless they are read in context  not just the context of an individual work, but the context of Nietzsche's oeuvre. Nietzsche took on the tough issues and came at them from all angles; and yes, sometimes he radically changed his mind. Thus, it's easy to accuse him of contradicting himself until one realizes the method to the madness  namely, Nietzsche leaves no stone unturned in his quest for truth. This volume is particularly good at making all of this clear.

A final note: Nietzsche will uproot your most cherished prejudices, throw them on a vivisection table and tear into them without anesthesia. Small minds beware!

This is a great compendium of Nietzsche's thoughts arranged chronologically by date written. I would have rather of had more Beyond Good and Evil and less Contra Wagner but that's my own preference. Those who admire Nietzsche find themselves in a bit of a quandry these days and this leads to the reason why I only gave the book three stars. The PC crowds will wail and moan that Nietzsche is fascist and a proto-Nazi. Of course he is not (his Overman was not a product of genetic breeding but of intellectual enlightenment), but those who admire Nietzsche still feel the need to defend him to the masses. A survey of Nietz. should be just that, a survey of his thoughts and writings. However what Kaufmann has done, in many of the excerpted works and in Nietz's letters, is to select those bits which show Nietz. at his most un-Nazi-ish (cursing and berating anti-Semites, etc.). That's fine for a work designed to show that he was not a proto-Hitler, but the Portable Niezsche is not that work and should not be edited to prove a point. Nietzsche did criticize the Jews in ways that would brand him an anti-Semite today even though he also says that anti-Semites should be shot. However when he says anti-Semites, he means Christians who hate Jews because of Scripture and not those who, like him (he deems their faith megalomaniacal in The AntiChrist), would otherwise criticize them for whatever reasons. I would agree with Kaufmann that Nietzsche is not a proto-Nazi but neither is he a good egalitarian and the only times he ever speaks of equality is to scorn it as a false and dangerous notion. Nietzsche is not so easily defined and I would wish him better left to the thoughtful reader rather than the hopeful editor to discover.

This anthology of Nietzsche's writing is a marvelous work - Kaufmann's translations make the philosopher's unique style accessible and interesting to the English reader; it doesn't resort to false formality or dry academic prose as is often the case in translation of such material, but rather sets things in lively and dynamic tones, much as Nietzsche's own writing and tendency toward the dramatic was noted by his contemporaries.

Nietzsche's father was a Lutheran minister, but he died five years after Nietzsche's birth in 1844. Nietzsche was raised by his mother, grandmother and aunts; later in his life, his sister would become executor of his estate (after Nietzsche had become incapable of managing his own affairs) and reshape his philosophy and writings in her own idea - this becomes a running motif in later anthologies of Nietzsche; editors can quote and clip to fit their own agendas. In some ways, that is true of Kaufmann's text here, but in much less inappropriate ways than others, particularly Nietzsche's first editor, his sister.

Nietzsche was a star pupil from his earliest days at university in Bonn and Leipzig. His formal study was in classical philology, but his attentions turned in various directions quickly during his writing and professional life - he had an intense interest in drama and the arts, with Wagner's music and Greek drama in principal interest. His first book was devoted to these topics - 'The Birth of Tragedy'. It was not highly regarded at the time, but has since become much more appreciated as an anticipation of later developments in philosophy and aesthetics.

Nietzsche's life after this period was a very choppy one - he left the university, claiming illness, and while this developed later to be a true situation, at the time is was probably academic politics and difficulties fitting in with the establishment he was trying to break. He had a formal falling-out with Wagner, even writing later a piece entitled ' Nietzsche contra Wagner', finished just a few week prior to his going insane.

Kaufmann states in the introduction that Nietzsche's real career took off after his active life was over; under his sister's direction, many of the writings Nietzsche had managed to do and not get published, or which were published but forgotten, really took off in major directions. While his major works of Zarathustra, Ecce Homo, Will to Power and Genealogy of Morals were in various editions of disrepair (inded, the Will to Power was never more complete than a series of notes), Nietzsche had a knack for language that made him very quotable, and his influence continued to grow well into the first half of the twentieth century, influencing art, philosophy, history, and politics in dramatic ways, if not always the ways in which Nietzsche envisioned.

For example, Nietzsche was not particularly impressed with the 'typical' German anti-semitism, which later erupted into the Nazi movement. He considered it rather bourgeois, and while he undoubted had his own issues with Jews (Nietzsche had issues with almost everyone, particularly any group, Christians included, who had a religious connection), the Nazi use of Nietzsche's work owes more to Nietzsche's sister's influence than anyone else.

Kaufmann here presents a chronology of Nietzsche (his life and his publications after his death); a brief bibliography, excerpts from correspondence and essays, and major selections from 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', 'Twilight of the Idols', 'The Antichrist', and other major works. Almost all of the writings are presented in new translations by Kaufmann.

This is one of the best single-volumes of Nietzsche available, reprinted dozens of times since its original publication.

Frederick Nietzsche writes with a force and passion rarely found amongst philosophers. His ability to coherently place his powerful and ranging intellect onto paper is simply amazing.

I recommend this collection for any and everyone who is not afraid to have their convictions tried and tested. Particularly if your of a Christian or liberal persuasion. Nietzsche damns, despises and condemns most of the values modern Western nations possess, including, democracy, equality, social justice, pity for the poor and unfortunate etc. I recommend starting with Twilight of the Idols as Nietzsche swiftly and passionately summarizes his values here. After reading Twilight of the Idols you will have laid a solid foundation to read the rest of the collection. This compendium may irritate, offend, or anger you, but be assured you will never be bored.

This is the definitive version of an Englsih translation of Nietzsche. This book covers Nietzsche's later and most important works: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," "The Antichrist," "Nietzsche Contra Wagner," and "Twilight of the Idols" (all four complete), letters to his sister and friends, and excerpts from the rest of his works.

Nietzsche is often misquoted, misinterprted, and given a bad name. This translation of his works, by Walter Kaufmann, is the definitive version and the best translation from Deutsch to English available. Kaufmann was celebrated for his writings and work on Nietzsche.

This edition takes one of the most prolific and intelligent people from the 19th-20th centuries and brings him to us in all of his glory.

A small book (700 pages), and yet there is both a good sampling of Nietzsche's early works, and the complete transcripts of his four most important books. This single edition allows for someone to follow the evolution of Nietzsche's writing and his very thought process over the course of his life.

The works of Friedrich Nietzsche should be read by anyone and everyone, not just those who are in an enviornment of higher education. If you agree with him, or even hate him and everything that he stands for, it is worth it to read this amazing man's work. If nothing else, it will cause you to stop and reevaluate everything that you hold dear. Reading Nietzsche, and understanding him are to very different things: and understanding him does not mean that one will agree with him; just that one will learn to stop and think about the world around them rather than to just tkae things for granted.