I initially read Walter Kaufmann’s version, which is extremely scrupulous in its details. The translation however, was a bit outdated. This book’s translation is more up to date and easy to read for a young person, but lacks footnotes/translations of figures of speech - most of which are French. Nietzsche knew language very well. I don’t like the lack of footnotes, as some passages entirely in French would require a dictionary or manual input to google translate. For the layperson who isn’t particularity concerned about these details though, it’s not a big deal. The book is a complication of notes anyway, making it necessarily disordered.
Despite these details, having Nietzsche’s last years of work accessible in a book like this is a pleasure. You can flip into a page, and immediately have a taste of the man’s thoughts at the moment he wrote them, about 140 years ago. Incisive, vicious, and starkly intelligent, his ideas give me conviction and reinforce many of my own ideas about how the world works. I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to add this to your collection, despite the risk of one of your more enlightened friends dismissing it as childish, or whatever else. You probably shouldn’t be talking to those people anyway.
| Publisher | Vintage; Later prt. edition (August 12, 1968) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 608 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0394704371 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0394704371 |
| Item Weight | 14.4 ounces |
| Dimensions | 5.19 x 0.95 x 7.99 inches |
