Nietzsche - R.J. Hollingdale

Nietzsche stands as one of the great European figures of the nineteenth century, perhaps alongside Marx and Freud, in the extent and importance of his influence. A wide range of twentieth-century writers and philosophers have acknowledged their debt to him, and aspects of his thinking were perverted into the rationale of Nazism. R.J. Hollingdale, well known for his studies in Nietzsche, his work on Schopenhauer, and his translation of Nietzsche’s writings, provides an excellent introduction to Nietzsche’s life and work and to other aspects of his influence.

Nietzsche’s background and the evolution of his thought are discussed, and a detailed description of his mature ideas is given, along with a more sober review of his posthumous reputation. Demanding much more accurate editions of Nietzsche’s posthumous literary remains, Mr. Hollingdale answers his demands by introducing the reader to the most notable modern views on Nietzschean philosophy and politics without distorting Nietzsche’s own thought. He discusses at length the project Nietzsche projected, and consummated an intellectual autobiography designed to introduce the reader to Nietzsche’s thought, and to provide in one volume a detailed bibliography of Nietzsche’s works in both German and English, and a sober bibliography of the literature about him.