Conversations with Nietzsche: A Life in the Words of His Contemporaries

by Sander L. Gilman (Editor), David J. Parent (Translator)

Nietzsche's friend, the philosopher Paul Rée, once said that Nietzsche was more important for his letters than for his books, and even more important for his conversations than for his letters. In Conversations with Nietzsche , Sander Gilman and David Parent present a fascinating selection of eighty-seven memoirs, anecdotes, and informal recollections by friends and acquaintances of Nietzsche. Translated from the definitive German collection, Begegnungen mit Nietzsche , these biographical pieces--some of which have never before appeared in English--cover the entire span of Nietzsche's his boyhood friendships, his arrival at the University of Bonn, his appointment to professor at Basel at age twenty-four, the impact of The Birth of Tragedy , his friendship with Wagner, his life in Italy, his confinement at the Jena Sanatorium, and his death. They present the philosopher in dialogue with friends and acquaintances, and provide new insights into him as a thinker and as a
commentator on his times, recounting his views on some of the greats of history, including Burckhardt, Goethe, Kant, Dostoevsky, Napoleon, and numerous others. In his selections, Gilman has carefully balanced documents concerning Nietzsche's personal life with others on his intellectual development, resulting in an entertaining and informative book that will appeal to a wide audience of educated readers.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Sander L. Gilman is an American cultural and literary historian. He is known for his contributions to Jewish studies and the history of medicine. He is the author or editor of over ninety books. Gilman's focus is on medicine and the echoes of its rhetoric in social and political discourse.

Reviews

[Philippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful collection of first person testimonials of meetings with Nietzsche. To be sure, none of these were written synchronously with the events they describe. The time interval between the encounters and the written record is in some cases more than fifty years. Despite their reminiscential character the reports very often come across as lively and fresh.

The testimonials were promoted by the growing reception of Nietzsche and one must assume that consciously or unconsciously they take position vis-à-vis various emerging Nietzsche legends. Two groups in particular stand out: a Weimar-group unequivocally presided over by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche who sought to project a hagiographic, heroic image of the philosopher. They found a counterpart in a Basel-centered circle with Carl Albrecht Bernoulli and Franz Overbeck who were more critical of Nietzsche's life and thinking. Despite these ideological and emotional differences there is considerable consistency in the persona that emerges from these pages.

Personally I have always been struck by the contrast between the often strident tone of Nietzsche's writings and the alleged generosity and friendliness of his character. The landlady of one of his Genoese residences referred to him as 'il piccolo santo', the little saint. And indeed, the man that appears from these pages is a most lovable and moving character. Deeply serious, fragile, empathetic, tragic. Here is an excerpt from a testimonial by Adolf Ruthardt, a musician, who met Nietzsche in the Engadin in the summer of 1885:

"Nietzsche's external appearance made an extremely agreeable impression on me. Above middle height, slender, well-formed, with erect but not stiff stance, his gestures harmonious, calm and sparing; the almost black hair, the thick Vercingetorix mustache, his light-colored, but distinguished-looking suit of the best cut and fit, allowed him so little to resemble the type of a German scholar that he called to mind rather than a Southern French nobleman or an Italian of Spanish higher officer in civilian clothes. Deep seriousness, but by no means the somber, angular, demonic expression that has been attributed to him in pictures and busts, spoke out of his noble features, with a healthy tan from going out a great deal in the open air and sun, and out of his large dark eyes."

Calmness, nobility, poise: these features return time and again in the personal accounts of those who had the good fortune to meet Nietzsche. Particularly the image of the "large, brown, velvety eyes" that "revealed a deep, kind, spirit-filled artistic soul" (Marie von Bradke) is an enchanting leitmotiv that lends the thinker's persona a nimbus of transcendent mystery. I would gladly give up a few years of my life to have been given the opportunity to personally peer into those eyes ...

The 87 vignettes are ordered chronologically. There is a helpful section with biographical notes of all the authors featured in the book with numbered references to the various written accounts. This is very convenient if one wishes to read in sequence the reports of a specific author (Ida Overbeck, Meta von Salis, Resa von Schirnhofer, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and Paul Deussen are featured numerous times in this volume).

The selection of material is taken from the much more extensive Begegnungen mit Nietzsche (1981), edited by Sander Gilman, which is out of print and impossible to get hold of. I am not aware of any other book, not even in German, that covers similar ground. The inescapable conclusion is that this is a must-have-and-read for anyone remotely interested in complementing Nietzsche's carefully curated authorial self-portrait with a third person perspective.

[Yahia Lababidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary... This brings us closer to the spirit of the man, past the shifting masks and conflicting ideas, than so much else. A revelation!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nietzsche will never seem quite the same now that I know he read Mark Twain.

[Oğulcan Çetin]

2023 Yılında Türkiye'de ciltsizi 1.278,95TL olan kitap. Öyle bir yer düşünün ki, genç insanların istedikleri bilgilere ulaşması neredeyse imkansız. Kast sisteminden farkı yok, alt sınıf bir vatandaş olduğum için dikkatimi çeken bilgiden mahrum kalıyorum :)

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perspectivism at its ironic best as a host of Nietzsche friends, confidantes and family members offer their views - from his early childhood in the 1840s to his eventual death in Weimar in 1900...

Paul Deussen, Nietzsche's close friend at the University of Bonn, recounts the infamous Cologne brothel incident of 1865 which Thomas Mann would make famous in his 'Doktor Faustus'... after asking to be taken to a restaurant, Nietzsche's guide led him to the place:

"I found myself surrounded by a half-dozen creatures in tinsel and gauze, looking at me expectantly. I stood speechless for a while. Then I instinctively went to a piano as if the only soul-endowed being in the place and struck a few chords. That dispersed my shock and I escaped into the street."

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nietszche becomes, in his own words, "human all to human", in this book. Their are good insights into his philosophy as well. The book also debunks the myth that Nietszche was an anti-Semite promoted by his sister, who did more to damage the reception and interpretation of his philosophy than any other through her misleading and selective editing of his works.

[Andrzej · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholarly look at FN by his friends and colleagues. It's especially interesting to note how an early version of celebrity resulted in the same privacy issues faced by today's celebrities - paparazzi, trespassers, thieves, and the like.

[Charles Kingsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some information I have not found in any other books on Nietzsche.