Share <Embed>

Buy New

$11.85

List Price: $13.95
Save: $2.10 (15%)

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

This item ships to Norway. Want it Friday, Jan. 25? Choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

Deliver to Norway

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$13.12
+ $5.50 shipping

Sold by: Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs Mass Market Paperback – January 12, 1974

by Friedrich Nietzsche (Author), Walter Kaufmann (Translator)

75 customer reviews

See all 17 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

"Please retry"

$1.24

—

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$150.05

"Please retry"

$5.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$11.85

Digital, Amazon Upgrade

"Please retry"

$2.59

—

Nietzsche called The Gay Science "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God—to which a large part of the book is devoted—and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.

Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.

Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche's most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.

Walter Kaufmann's English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche's major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.

Sponsored products related to this item

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

Feedback

Tylor S. Lovins

An introduction to his basic ideas for the average person: On mythology, religion, politics, truth, and more!

6

Paperback
$9.52
Feedback

George J. Bradley

26

Paperback
$14.88
Feedback

George Orwell

4142

Hardcover
$16.06
Feedback

Emily Bronte

5647

Paperback
$7.80
Feedback

Friedrich Nietzsche

35

Paperback
$6.50
Feedback

Lao Tzu

2392

Paperback
$6.79
Feedback

Rev. Dr. N. T. Wright

76

Paperback
$16.29

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[This book] mirrors all of Nietzsche's thought and could be related in hundreds of ways to his other books, his notes, and his letters. And yet it is complete in itself. For it is a work of art."

-- Walter Kaufmann in the Introduction

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 396 pages
Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (January 12, 1974)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394719859
ISBN-13: 978-0394719856
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 75 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Aesthetics
- #18 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Individual Philosophers
- #26 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Free Will & Determinism

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Sponsored products related to this item

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

Feedback

Will Craig

In an age where people look outward for direction and upward for inspiration, this book will help you look inward and go deep for the answers you seek

59

Kindle Edition
$7.99
Feedback

Tylor S. Lovins

An introduction to his basic ideas for the average person: On mythology, religion, politics, truth, and more!

6

Paperback
$9.52
Feedback

George J. Bradley

26

Paperback
$14.88
Feedback

Rev. Dr. N. T. Wright

76

Paperback
$16.29
Feedback

Lao Tzu

2392

Paperback
$6.99
Feedback

George Orwell

4142

Hardcover
$16.06
Feedback

Nick Seneca Jankel

Love, peace, and purpose without God. An upcoming new release. Reserve your copy now.

7

Kindle Edition
$9.99
Feedback

Lao Tzu

2392

Paperback
$6.79
Feedback

Friedrich Nietzsche

392

Paperback
$5.99
Feedback

Peter Luce

Literary review of complete works of Carlos Castaneda, and his apprenticeship with the Mexican sorcerer, don Juan

23

Kindle Edition
$5.99

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

75 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-8 of 75 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Beware non-Kaufmann Kindle version

September 6, 2013

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love Amazon, but you have to be careful about the way very different versions of a book sometimes wind up on the same sales page with their reader reviews mixed together. At the time I am writing, the page for the Walter Kaufmann translation of the Gay Science lists a Kindle edition for 99 cents, but that edition is not the Kaufmann. It is a new version of Thomas Common's poor translation from a hundred years ago; without its slight re-editing, this public domain version is available free elsewhere. Although I do see one contrary opinion in the reviews, the vast majority of readers greatly prefer the Kaufmann translation, and until that is made available for Kindle, I would suggest one of the inexpensive used copies of the paperback, which you can also get on this page. _That_ is a five star book.

EDITED IN OCTOBER 2015: As of THIS date, you can get a Kindle version of the Kaufmann translation for 11.99. A bit pricey for a Kindle reissue, but still worth it (and it may come down sometimes). If you are not seeing that version on the page where you read this review, do another search in the Kindle department, just searching for "Kaufmann," nothing else, and you should find it; you may have to go through a few pages. Price and accessibility may change in the future, of course.

72 people found this helpful

Comment

Troy A. Coberly

I rate this 1 star because the kindle version is ...

May 26, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I rate this 1 star because the kindle version is messed up. It doesn't contain a coherent translation. It switches from English to German mid sentence. It's frustrating and unreadable. I want a refund...but I don't see that happening. Buy the physical book. It's correct.

5 people found this helpful

Comment

August 10, 2017

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

as described. A very solid translation with a very knowledgable prelude from the translator

3 people found this helpful

Comment

May 1, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Cambridge editions are the best in philosophy.

One person found this helpful

Comment

June 28, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great read item met description

One person found this helpful

Comment

August 6, 2017

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

Phenomenal work by Kaufmann on Nietzsche's work

2 people found this helpful

Comment

October 6, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Good deal. I am glad I got this version instead of the other. This was cheaper and no real difference other than external look.

2 people found this helpful

Comment

Heraclitus comes to the fore-- Im Fluss:Panta rei

June 1, 2008

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

The best first and/or last step into Friedrich Nietzsche's thought. It reads quickly and gives a fair cross-section of his writings chronologically: just before TSZ, right after his "free spirit" epoch, and Bk. V from around the time of Beyond Good & Evil. Only a shame that a Hollingdale translation is not available in English.
And now some buffoonery from yours trulery.

Down Going Limerick

Zarathustra is now down going
And so he speaks in rhyme:
The madman said, "God is dead.
Where is he? Is it we who killed a lie?"

Now I Exhort You to Love What is Most Distant, to
Dionysus Against the Crucified.

Burn Your Ships and move to Inland Deserts
Onward--To the Great Noontide,
For The Twilight of the Idols Approaches,
And The Overman's Time is Well Nigh.

At Last Behold the Higher Man--
Whom With Hammer Doth Philosophize:
"You yourself are this Will to Power,
and nothing else besides!"

Now Completely Drunk With Laugher,
And Unafraid to Die
The Higher Man Declares: Amor Fati!
Finally Dionysus Will Fly!

Thus Spoke Zarathustra in His Down Going
Of the Innocence of Becoming from on High.
"Together, Apollo and Dionysus unite
Against the Crucified."

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The Sorcerer unpursed his lips
laying his flute beside him, and sighed.

6 people found this helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs

Set up a giveaway

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: academic research, art market history, science e

English United States

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2019, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates