I Am Dynamite!: A Life of NietzscheNEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice • THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE A groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will to power, slave morality—have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the human condition. But what do most people really know of Nietzsche—beyond the mustache, the scowl, and the lingering association with nihilism and fascism? Where do we place a thinker who was equally beloved by Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Martin Buber, and Adolf Hitler? Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing—overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father—through his teaching career, lonely philosophizing on high mountains, and heart-breaking descent into madness, Prideaux documents Nietzsche’s intellectual and emotional life with a novelist’s insight and sensitivity. She also produces unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé, the femme fatale who broke his heart; and his sister Elizabeth, a rabid German nationalist and anti-Semite who manipulated his texts and turned the Nietzsche archive into a destination for Nazi ideologues. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher. |
From inside the book
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Page 6
... idea when he was about eighteen. At the moment of this meeting with Wagner, he was not yet a philosopher but merely an undergraduate at Leipzig University studying classical philology, the science of classical languages and linguistics ...
... idea when he was about eighteen. At the moment of this meeting with Wagner, he was not yet a philosopher but merely an undergraduate at Leipzig University studying classical philology, the science of classical languages and linguistics ...
Page 16
... ideas. Within the slow momentum of a conservative society moving at a slug-like pace, the two clergymen's widows Erdmuthe and Franziska, with their settled, though not particularly prosperous circumstances, fitted acceptably into the ...
... ideas. Within the slow momentum of a conservative society moving at a slug-like pace, the two clergymen's widows Erdmuthe and Franziska, with their settled, though not particularly prosperous circumstances, fitted acceptably into the ...
Page 19
... idea of appropriating universal knowledge and universal capability that I was in danger of becoming a complete muddle-head and fantasist.” But here the fourteen-year-old underestimates himself as he sums up his life to date, for he ...
... idea of appropriating universal knowledge and universal capability that I was in danger of becoming a complete muddle-head and fantasist.” But here the fourteen-year-old underestimates himself as he sums up his life to date, for he ...
Page 20
... ideas... A poem which is empty of ideas and overladen with phrases and metaphors is like a rosy apple in the core of which a maggot lies hid ... In the writing of any work one must pay the greatest attention to the ideas themselves. One ...
... ideas... A poem which is empty of ideas and overladen with phrases and metaphors is like a rosy apple in the core of which a maggot lies hid ... In the writing of any work one must pay the greatest attention to the ideas themselves. One ...
Page 26
... Ideas Towards an Attempt to Determine the Limits of State Action, a book that influenced John Stuart Mill's On ... idea of learning as a dynamic process constantly renewed and enriched by scientific research and independent thought ...
... Ideas Towards an Attempt to Determine the Limits of State Action, a book that influenced John Stuart Mill's On ... idea of learning as a dynamic process constantly renewed and enriched by scientific research and independent thought ...
Contents
1 | |
23 | |
40 | |
NAX0S 61 | 88 |
POlson CDTIAGE | 113 |
CONCEPTQUAKE | 126 |
THE LAST DISCIPLE AND THE FIRST DISCIPLE | 143 |
FREE AND NOT SO FREE SPIRITS | 157 |
MY FATHER WAGNER IS DEAD MY SON IARATHUSTRA is BORN | 243 |
DECLAIMING INTO THE WOID | 267 |
LLAMALAND | 281 |
TWILIGHT INTURIN | 307 |
THE CAVE MINOTAUR | 331 |
Aphorisms | 383 |
Photography Credits Insert | 397 |
Notes | 407 |
HUMAN All TDD HUMAN 111 | 182 |
PHILOSOPHY AND EROS | 198 |
THE PHILOSOPHERS APPRENTICE | 211 |
Select Bibliography | 429 |
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Common terms and phrases
anti-Semitic aphorisms archive arrived Basel Bayreuth become Bernhard Förster Birth of Tragedy brother Bülow called Carl von Gersdorff Christian Cosima Wagner culture death described Diary Dionysian Dionysus Ecce Homo Elisabeth Nietzsche Erwin Rohde eternal everything Evil eyes father felt festival Förster Förster-Nietzsche Franz Overbeck Franziska free spirit gave Gay Science German Greek Harry Kessler Human Ibid idea Idols intellectual King Ludwig lectures Leipzig letter live look Lou Salomé Malwida von Meysenbug mother Naumburg never Nietz Nietzsche to Franz Nietzsche's Nueva Germania opera Paraguay Paul Rée Peter Gast Pforta philology philosopher piano play poem Professor published Rée Resa Richard Wagner Ring sche Schmeitzner Section sent Sils-Maria sister soul Spoke Zarathustra things thought tion took Tribschen truth Turin Übermensch University Untimely Meditations Wagner and Cosima Wahnfried walk wanted Weimar writing wrote