Nietzsche

by Stefan Zweig

Nietzsche

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, German Literature, Biography Memoir, Essays

145 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.
Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.
Zweig's interest in psychology and the teachings of Sigmund Freud led to his most characteristic work, the subtle portrayal of character. Zweig's essays include studies of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Drei Meister, 1920; Three Masters) and of Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and Friedrich Nietzsche (Der Kampf mit dem Dämon, 1925; Master Builders). He achieved popularity with Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928; The Tide of Fortune), five historical portraits in miniature. He wrote full-scale, intuitive rather than objective, biographies of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935), and others. His stories include those in Verwirrung der Gefühle (1925; Conflicts). He also wrote a psychological novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Emile Verhaeren.
Most recently, his works provided the inspiration for 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Reviews

[Vicky "phenkos" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a new translation by Will Stone of Zweig's biography of Nietzsche published by Pushkin Press. The translation supersedes earlier English editions of the book and will be suitable for those with an interest in Zweig and, secondarily, Nietzsche. Why am I saying this now? Because this biography is more about Zweig and what he sought in Nietzsche than about Nietzsche himself. An excellent introductory essay by the translator discusses Nietzsche's significance for Zweig, Zweig's biographical works (of which he wrote several including on Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Hoelderlin and others) and their place within Zweig's larger literary corpus. Stone makes clear that Zweig's biographies are not so much scholarly attempts at erudition but rather "ardently persuasive romantic hymns to their subject". Indeed, reading the first few lines of the first chapter, one gets the impression that a romanticising mind with a knack for high drama is at work here:

The tragedy of Friedrich Nietzsche is a monodrama: no other figure is present on the brief lived stage of his existence. Across the acts of this tragedy, which crash down and surge on like an avalanche, the isolated combatant stands alone beneath the stormy sky of his own destiny; nobody is alongside him, nobody is opposing him and no woman is there to momentarily relax the overstrugn atmosphere with her presence.

This book would appeal to those with an interest in Zweig or scholars who study Nietzsche's reception. However, I don't think it would be very suitable for those who are new to Nietzsche and would like to know more. Nietzsche was indeed a profoundly original philoospher, still highly misunderstood (the Nazis for instance, tried to appropriate his notion of the "overman", which was highly damaging to Nietzsche's posthumous reputation). It is not always easy to see the radical implications of some of his ideas, for example, the noblemen, and it is tempting to consider these ideas as evidence of a misplaced nostalgia for things of the past. It is vitally important to read Nietzsche for what is original and daring in him, what goes against cliched ways of thinking (for example, his critique of Christianity, morality and utilitarianism), and what can bring new life into philosophy. However, I'm not convinced this book achieves this, which is a bit of a shame considering the remarkable and noteworthy efforts of the translator and the publisher. In light of the latter, I hope that the book succeeeds in bringing new audiences to the study Nietzsche, but I'd be inclined to look elsewhere for an accessible introduction to his life and thought.

My thanks to netgalley and Pushkin Press for an advance copy.

[Mohammad Ali Shamekhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب کلا فاقد محتوای فلسفیه. اما علی رغم این موضوع نگاهی است جذاب، مختصر و مفید به پیچ و تاب های زندگی ذهنی و درونی نیچه. چندان خبری از رخدادهای زندگی بیرونی نیچه در این کتاب نیست - مگر اشاراتی کلی. آنچه بدنه ی این کتاب را تشکیل می دهد توصیفاتی است از احوال نیچه - نه اقوال و نه حتی افعال. من این نگاه بی دبدبه و کبکبه رو پسندیدم. روحی در نوشته بود که در کتابهای با جزئیات و ... چه بسا نباشه

البته بعضی جاها مثل فصل ستایش بیماری به نظرم زیادی روان شناسانه بود و نیچه زیادی توهمی نشون داده شده بود - البته این در فصل های آینده توهم وجهه ی منفی ظاهریش رو از دست می ده. فصل هشتم که در مورد موسیقی بود به نظرم خیلی به اختصار برگزار شده بود. به نظرم رویکردی که در این فصل بهش اشاره شده بود خیلی شوپنهاوری بود - به قول خود نیچه، موسیقی و هنر برای آن است که از فشار واقعیت نمیریم. موسیقی برای نیچه در این فصل شده عاملی برای آرامش و برای همین نیچه از تحریکات موسیقایی واگنری بیزار می شه. موسیقی می شه روز هفتم آفرینش. اما این سوال پابرجا است که این ویژگی با عصیان نیچه ای و خواست قهرآمیز سلطه بر محدودیت ها نزد نیچه نمی خونه. همچنین با طعنه ی نیچه به گوته در مورد محتاط بودن گوته در قبال موسیقی نمی خونه. اینکه موسیقی لازم نیست آن شر و شور و تحریک رو داشته باشه برعکس ادعای این فصل اتفاقا آری گو نیست. این ابهام به نظرم ناشی از سرسری رد شدن از این موضوعه

[Nathanimal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not biography. This is hagiography. Breathless and watery-eyed. But that’s okay. Actually, how Nietzsche is adored by those who came after him, and how he shaped their thinking, is probably just as valuable as a biography. And at least Zweig’s mythos grows not from heroic nonsense but from Nietzsche’s loneliness and infirmity and self-wracking. For me, it’s these ironies that save Nietzsche from being a bombastic twat.

[Goatboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope. Can't do it. Beautiful prose I suppose in a bruised fanfic purple sort of way, but I am done giving it any more time. It's funny, because I was just thinking how I would almost never have 1 or 2 star rated books on my list because I've been alive long enough to be a better pre-judge of what to spend my time on. But this one was a surprise because of subject matter and author. Who knew? Oh well... I'm happy enough knowing that I am alright with just putting it down. Not for me. Only a subjective judgement here (although, really, they are all only this). Anyway, if anyone is interested, I'm willing to send this for free to the first person who asks if you want to give it a go yourself. Shame to waste it...

[Anna P (whatIreallyRead) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I decided to read something biographical about Nietzsche before picking up his works. Simply because I was intimidated and thought having the context of the philosopher's life will help me understand his thoughts. So I picked up Zweig's essay and was sorely disappointed.

The whole essay is written in overly dramatic language and focused almost exclusively on Nietzsche’s inner life. The exaggerations felt inappropriate, and the neverending descriptions of Nietzsche’s feelings made me question how Zweig knew about them to write so confidently. Here's an example:

This uncanny, almost demonic, hypersensitivity of Nietzsche’s nerves, fugitive nuances that would never even cross the threshold of another’s consciousness, and which undermined him so cruelly, is the sole root of his sufferings, but equally forms the primordial cell of his genial capacity for the appreciation of values.

If Zweig backed up his claims with some quotes, letters, diaries, or works, it would have been fine. But Zweig never sites sources so it felt like he was just making things up. The only thing I learned about Nietzsche’s life from reading this essay is that he lived in Italy at some point. So if this was meant to be biographical, it failed. I didn't find reading this valuable at all.

[Kianoush Mokhtarpour · Rating 5 out of 5]

پانوراما: زندگی نیچه را می‌شود خلاصه کرد در یک تراژدی تک‌بازیگر. نه دوست و رفیقی در کنارش هست، نه دشمن سرسختی در مقابلش. تنها ی تنهاست. بار درام این نمایش همه از جدال درونی بازیگر با خود است.

در شروع، تک‌وتوک تماشاگرانی به چشم می‌خورند. اما گلاویزشدن‌های سبعانه‌ی بازیگر با خودش تماشاگران را به وحشت می‌اندازد. صندلی‌ها یکی یکی خالی می‌شوند. نیچه اما اعتنایی به تماشاگر ندارد. برای دل خودش می‌جنگد نه سوت و تشویق تماشاگران.

تا اینکه پایان نمایش نزدیک می‌شود. از اینکه قدر ندیده، از اینکه نادیده مانده هراس و خشم به جانش می‌افتد. تا مگر نظرها را به خود جلب کند، نعره برمی‌دارد، مزه می‌پراند، به این و آن طعنه می‌زند. بی‌حاصل.

سرانجام فشار عصبی، خودزنی‌های روحی پیاپی، و کار کشیدن‌های بی‌رحمانه از ذهن، مغزش را از پا در می‌آورند. هذیان. دیوانه‌وار بر صحنه می‌چرخد و می‌توفد. در این هذیان تنها مضمون قابل تشخیص منم منم‌های مغرورانه است. لقب از پس لقب برای خود می‌تراشد. تا اینکه کف بر دهان آورده بر زمین می‌افتد. تنها، برصحنه‌ای تاریک و وسیع، در تماشاخانه‌ای بی‌تماشاگر.

این تصویرِ پانورامای تسوایگ از نیچه است در ابتدای کتاب. در ادامه، ده تصویر نزدیک‌تر از نیچه و زندگی‌اش ترسیم می‌کند



یک. دو چهره. مجسمه‌سازان و نقاشان سیمای نیچه را این طور ترسیم کرده‌اند: سری شیرسان که با گردنی ستبر بر بدن یک وایکنیگ قرار گرفته. و سبیلی سترگ تمثال درنده را کامل می‌کند. اما تسوایگ ما را به مسافرخانه‌ای می‌برد و نیچه حقیقی را هنگام بیرون آمدن از اتاقش نشانمان می‌دهد که شانه‌هایش خمیده‌ست و کورمال کورمال و بااحتیاط قدم بر می‌دارد. در پس عینک ته استکانی چشمانی نیمه کور نشسته؛ در سرش اعصابی زیادی تحرک پذیر؛ و در بدنش دل‌وروده‌ای بیمار. ستبری را نه در هیبت این مرد که در اراده‌اش باید جست



دو. ستایش بیماری. نیچه که صبحانه‌اش را خورده (با هزار وسواس که مبادا چای زیاده پررنگ باشد یا غذا پرادویه) به اتاقش بر می‌گردد. دو چیز در اتاق توجه ما را جلب می‌کند. یکی میز مطالعه که پر است از دست‌نوشته و کاغذ، و نیمی از زندگی نیچه را می‌سازد. دیگری طاقچه‌ای پر از دارو و دوا. که نیمه‌ی دیگر زندگی اوست. سردردهای میگرنی روی تخت درازش می‌کند و تا لب گور می‌بردش. به کمک چندجور شربت حمله‌ها را از سر می‌گذراند، اما خود این داروها معده‌اش را مختل می‌کنند. پس چند جور محلول و قرص و دوا برای علاج معده. حالا دوباره نوبت میگرن است. و باز به هم ریختن دل و روده. بازگشت ابدی درد

در نامه‌های جوانی نیچه گله‌هایی از درد و بیماری دیده می‌شود. اما بعد نگاهش عوض می‌شود: ستایش بیماری. در جدال با بیماری عظمتی می‌یابد. غروری. آنچه او را نکشد قوی‌ترش می‌سازد. از سخت‌جانی اراده‌اش لذت می‌برد. فریاد بر می‌آورد که درد بر من ریز. نیچه حالا ماتادوری شده که گاو خشمگین درد را با تکان لچک سرخ فرا می‌خواند



سه. دون ژوان شناخت. "همچنانکه که دون ژوان از پس هر زن، "زن" را می‌جوید، نیچه نیز از پس همه‌ی شناخت‌ها "شناخت" را می‌طلبد. کانت و شوپنهاور و اغلب فیلسوفان دیگر نظام فکری خود را می‌سازند و تمام. به تماشایش می‎نشینند و لذت می‌برند، یا نهایتاً گوشه‌هایش را اندکی کج و راست می‌کنند، بندی اضافه می‌کنند و بندی را قلم می‌گیرند. نیچه اما نظام فکری ظریفش را می‌سازد و باز بر زمین می‌زندش. آرام نمی‌گیرد. تب‌آلوده و بی‌قرار به دنبال شناختی تازه است، در عطشی ابدی



چهار. شور صداقت. نیچه می‌پرسد انسان تا چه اندازه از حقیقت را می‌تواند تحمل کند؟ کرانه‌های تحمل حقیقت کجاست؟ نیچه رخت جستجوگران را به تن می‌کند و در پی این کرانه‌ها به راه می‌افتد. مسیحیان را می‌بیند که در همان منزل اول زه زده‌اند. رنج و درد و بی‌معنایی هستی را، این حقایق انکارناپذیر را، تاب نیاورده‌اند و هراس‌خورده خدایی ساخته‌اند و به او آویخته‌اند. اخلاق و اصول زندگی را هم برای آرامش خودشان سروته کرده‌اند. نیچه با شامه‌ی تیزش بوی پستی از اینان می‌شنود. چشم‌پوشی اینان بر حقیقت در نظرش ناپسند می‌آید، پس تا پایان عمرش از آن پرهیز می‌کند. زیستن در این دنیا نیازمند سازشکاری با دنیا و دنیائیان است، اما نیچه سرش به دنیا و عقبی فرو نمی‌آید. منزل‌های حقیقت را یکی یکی طی می‌کند، تا آنکه نور کورکننده‌ی حقیقت ذهنش را از پا می‌اندازد



پنج. پیشرفت به سوی خود. نیچه مردی‌است در شدن ابدی. مدام در دگرگونی. و عجیب آنکه هرچه از سنش می‌گذرد این استحاله‌ بیش‌تر و تندتر می‌شود. از این بابت نیچه برعکس گوته است. گوته، در جوانی جانی بی‌قرار داشت، چون اسپند بر آتش. نگاه‌ها و زندگی‌ها و بودن‌های متفاوت را تجربه می‌کرد. اما پیر که شد ثباتی یافت و قراری. هویتی و نگاهی را برگزید و به آن پایبند ماند. نیچه اما برعکس. وقار و ثبات را اول راه تجربه کرد: در بیست و چندسالگی استاد زبان‌شناسی دانشگاه بازل بود. ساعت‌ها سر در کتاب‌های خاک‌گرفته‌ی ته کتاب‌خانه فرو می‌برد، نت بر می‌داشت، و مثل پیرهای جاافتاده درس می‌گفت. سنش که بالا رفت ز قیل و قال مدرسه دلش گرفت. رفت که خدمت معشوق و می کند، که برای او عبارت بود از غرق شدن در افکار نو. نیچه مثل بنجامین باتن از پیری آغاز کرد، اما هرچه رفت جوان‌تر شد. و در جوانی ماند. در جوانی ابدی [دوستی می‌گفت این را از رمانتیک‌ها داشت، این درون‌نگری و تبدیل و تبدل دائمی را]



شش. کشف جنوب. نیچه که بدن نحیفش به کوچکترین باد و تغییرات جوی به هم می‌ریخت، مدام در حال سفر بود تا هوایی سازگار بیابد. و یافت: ایتالیا. اما بیش از هوای ایتالیا، نور آن بود که بر نیچه اثر گذاشت. همان نوری که ونگوگ را هم به وجد آورده بود. نور و سرور و سبکی. نور ایتالیا گشودگی مینور را داشت، مثل ماهور ما. نیچه جدیدی زاده شد. شد نقطه‌ی عکس آدم آلمانی فراک‌پوش جدی. گویی نوایی در گوشش گفته باشد: "چرا اینقدر جدی؟". آسمان لاجوردی و افق گسترده‌ی روشن نرمی و شادابی به قلم و جان نیچه بخشید. قلمش آن ثقل و زمختی «آلمانی‌»‌ش را از دست داد و جهنده و سرخوش شد؛ همچانکه روحش



هفت. پناه به موسیقی. نگاه نیچه به موسیقی در سالخوردگی عوض می‌شود. در جوانی، آن وقت که استاد دانشگاه بود، موسیقی را به چشم یک محرک می‌دید؛ نوایی که ذهن و روح را به حرکت بیندازد. در سالخوردگی، و در اوج فشار فکری، شیفته‌ی عکس این نوع موسیقی شد؛ شیفته‌ی آن موسیقی که آرامش ببخشد؛ که حوض زلالی باشد برای پاهای ذهن خسته‌ات. آن موسیقی که «بتوانی با سوت بزنی». تارهای ذهن نیچه مثل سیم‌های پیانوی هزارونهصد در آن دوئل داخل کشتی، مدام برافروخته است. نیچه تنها به یاری موسیقی می‌توانست ذهن برافروخته و بی‌قرارش را لحظه‌ای خنکک و آرام کند. پش قدرشناسانه می‌گوید ما هنر را داریم تا از حقیقت نمیریم



هشت. تنهای تنها. سنی از نیچه گذشته. چند کتابش منتشر شده، که همه گوشه‌ی کتابفروشی‌ها روی هم تلنبار شده. ناشرها میل به چاپ کتاب جدیدش ندارند. نسخه‌هایی برای دوستانش می‌فرستد و نظر می‌خواهد. حتی نقدی بی‌رحمانه هم می‌توانست خوشحالش کند، اما دوستانش همین را هم از او دریغ می‌کنند. سکوت مطلق. گویی صدایش به جایی نمی‌رسد، مثل آن حالی که در خواب جیغ می‌کشی، اما صدایت در نمی‌آید. انگار چیزی در دنیا به همه ریخته که صدایت به گوش‌ها نمی‌رسد. نیچه، با همه‌ی غرور، باز انسان است و نیاز دارد که تایید شود. دست کم دیده شود. که نمی‌شود. اینجاست که نیچه تنهاترین است. نه دوستی، نه دشمنی. عارفان در خلوتشان دست‌کم خدا را دارند، اما نیچه این یکی را هم از خود رانده. اگر آنطور که یالوم می‌گوید نیچه سرانجام گریست، به نظرم اینجا بود که گریست. یا بگوییم هر آدمی جای نیچه می‌بود می‌گریست



نه. بر فراز پرتگاه. برای یک دوره‌ی چندماهه نیچه قلم بر کاغذ می‌گذارد و پشت سر هم شاهکار می‌نویسد. ذهنش آخرین تقلاهایش را می‌کند. مضامین گویی به ذهنش الهام می‌شوند. بارانی بی‌وقفه. می‌گوید شدت این همه احساس مرا متاثر می‌کند و می‌خنداند. و بعد.... ذهنش از هم می‌پاشد. هذیان می‌گوید. در تعریف از خود کاغذ سیاه می‌کند. پای نوشته‌هایش را با القاب پرنخوت امضاء می‌کند: هیولا، مصلوب، دجال. می‌گوید "من یک رخدادم که تاریخ را به بعد و قبل از خودم تقصیم می‌کنم". و روزی بر زمین می‌افتد. بدن سالم است، اما ذهن نه



ده. مربی آزادی. دوستی به نیچه نوشته: کتاب‌هایت استقلال را در دنیا توسعه می‌دهند

من از نیچه چیزی نخوانده‌ام. اینها عمدتا حرف‌های تسوایگ است. درست و غلطش با خودش و خودتان

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was stunning and I’m definitely putting Zweig up there as one of my favourite 10 writers. This short book is one of the best insights I’ve ever had into the mind and soul of Nietzsche. Thus spoke Zarathustra is my all-time favourite philosophy book. I remember reading that as a 20 something year old and thinking what the feck type of Alien was this Neechy dude?!? His words would take your mind by the hand and lead you to places your mind had never thought possible to visit or could have imagined and then he'd leave u there and just disappear :). The book really helped me to understand how Neechy saw himself. We can’t say if all of this is correct as its Zweig’s opinion but wow what an incredibly well articulated opinion.
Some of the best bits in the book were:
• “There appears for the first time upon the high seas of German philosophy the black flag of a pirate ship: a man of a different type, another race, a new brand of heroism, a philosophy no longer clad in professorial and scholarly robes, but armed and armoured for the struggle.”
• “To hose out the lingering odour of intellectual poverty that resides in the mind.”
• “But it is not enough in the most adept psychology to wield only the sharpest scalpel with the best cutting edge, he must also have a grip of steel, a supple and durable metal which must not waver or be withdrawn during the psychological operation, for such an operation demands more than talent alone, it demands character and courage to think all that one knows is undeniably correct.”
• “The rupture of all individual bonds is hard, but a wing grows in place of each bond”
• “Of the fourth section of Zarathustra, printed at his own expense, he acquires only forty copies and out of the seventy million inhabitants of Germany, he could only find seven people to whom he would send them, so that at the peak of his work, he had become a total stranger, inaccessible and foreign to his own epoch.”
• “never has a brain endured such a permanently high electric tension as in those last convulsions of his words; never have association of words been formed at such magic speeds; vision is one with language.”
• “just as nature has needs of hurricanes and cyclones to give free reign to its excess of force in a violent revolt against its own stability, so the spirit has need from time to time of a man possessed, whose higher power is raised against the community of thought and the monotony of morality.” – wow.

[Hessam Ghaeminejad · Rating 3 out of 5]

اگر بدنبال زندگی نامه ای از نیچه هستید یا بررسی فلسفه نیچه برای شما اهمیت دارد ویاجنبه های ادبی نیچه شما را مجذوب خود کرده است، سراغ این کتاب« نروید »چون به هیچ کدام از اینها نپرداخته است. اثر نگاهی روانشناسانه به نیچه ، بحران های روحی و علایق او دارد که با بیان ادبی مطرح میشود اما جملات طولانیِ ویرایش نشده ( که من اسمی از ویراستار در ابتدای کتاب ندیدم)مانع لذت بردن از
این بخش ادبی می‌شود ، هر چند فصل «هفتمین تنهایی» به عنوان یکی از فصل های خواندنی این کتاب است ولی باقی فصل ها به این جذابیت نیستند
پاینده باشید

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scintillating biographical study of one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, by one of the bestselling writers of the twentieth. In this vivid biography, Zweig eschews traditional academic discussion and focuses on Nietzsche's habits, passions and obsessions. This work, concentrating on the man rather than the work, on the tragedy of his existence and his apartness from the world in which he moved in enforced isolation, is a tour de force, drawing the reader inexorably into Nietzsche's tragic trajectory.

Illustrated with numerous photographs relating to Nietzsche and his European locations, this superb translation by Will Stone is essential reading for anyone interested in Nietzsche, Zweig, first-class biographies and philosophy. It's accessible, captivating and eminently readable, but what makes Zweig’s memoir tower head and shoulders above the rest in a sea of Nietzsche books is the nuance and minute, intricate detail, as well as the unbridled passion, with which it has been written. An exhaustive account of a philosopher who had a substantial posthumous impact across Western societies. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Pushkin for an ARC.

[Anthelia Amazes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do not read this book if you haven't read anything from Nietzsche himself and somehow enjoyed it, because it won't give you the desire to do so. And do not read it either if you expect to know more about Nietzsche's life, because he had none but the one inside his head. So you won't find anything factual.
Nietzsche's philosophy is really hard to get, and this book does not help much. It mostly compares Nietzsche to some other great/crazy spirits and artists of his time.
Not my favorite biography Stefan Zweig wrote, but obviously not the best and easiest subject also.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non è una biografia, né un'esposizione dell'opera e del suo pensiero. È più un ripercorrere il dramma umano ed esistenziale di Nietzsche, il suo tormento fisico e l'erompere del sentimento possente e tragico che è in definitiva è la sua filosofia, la sua opera d'arte e la sua vita. A tratti è un vero ditirambo al nostro Dioniso crocifisso.
(Spero di non aver detto stupidaggini e asinerie)

[Best Friend with Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stefan Zweig’in bu eseri, Nietzsche’yi fikirlerinden çok hayatının dramı ve insani yönleriyle tanıtan, edebi yönü kuvvetli ve baştan sona akıcı bir roman niteliği taşıyan bir biyografi aslında. Zweig tarafından derin bir empatiyle yazılmış olan bu metin, Nietzsche’nin fikirlerinden çok, o fikirlerin arkasındaki insanı ve ruh hâlini anlamaya odaklanıyor. Bu sayede bizler de yıllardır felsefi fikirler ardında tanıdığımız filozofun daha bizden olan yanlarını keşfediyoruz. Yalnızlığını; dostluğu ve aşkı arayışını, hastalıklarla mücadelesini okuyoruz.

Zweig, Nietzsche’yi daha iyi anlamamız için onu Goethe ve Dostoyevski gibi iki büyük isimle de kıyaslıyor. Goethe’nin yaşamı kucaklayan dengesi, Nietzsche’nin içsel fırtınalarıyla tezat oluşturuyor. Dostoyevski ise Nietzsche gibi insanın karanlık yanlarına bakıyor ama oradan Tanrı’ya varıyor; Nietzsche ise Tanrı’yı reddedip kendi değerlerini kuruyor. Bu kıyaslamalar, Nietzsche’nin düşünsel yalnızlığını ve farklılığını bir ayna gibi ortaya seriyor.

Nietzsche’nin, zamanının çok ilerisinde yürüyen biri olması yaşadığı dönemin değer yargılarını, ahlâk anlayışını ve inanç sistemini kökten sorgulaması çevresindekiler tarafından anlaşılamamasına dolayısıyla onun yanında yürümek yerine ondan uzaklaşmalarına sebep olmuştu şüphesiz. Nietzsche bugün daha geniş kitlelerce anlaşılabiliyor olsa da onun düşüncelerini tam olarak anlamak, kişisel bir “dönüşüm” ve “kendini yeniden yaratma” sürecine girmeyi gerektiriyor zannımca.

En sevdiğim yazarın okumaktan en keyif aldığım filozof hakkında yazmış olduğu bu eserle buluşmak benim için muazzamdı 🙌. Nietzsche’nin doğruluğa, dürüstlüğe, hakiki olana bağlılığının hayatını nasıl bir yöne çevirdiğini, yaşam tutkusu ve sınırları aşan kişiliğinin kendi sonunu nasıl getirdiğini okumak eminim beni çok etkiledi. Özellikle Nietzsche severlerin, Nietzsche’yi tanımak isteyenlerin es geçmemesi gerektiğini düşünüyorum.

T.

[Bart Stouten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helemaal weg van 'Nietzsche', zoals gezien door Stefan Zweig. Hij portretteert een filosoof die als geen ander kan omgaan met grote tegenstellingen; anders dan Goethe, die een geniaal vermogen had om netelige situaties te omzeilen, had Nietzsche een uiterst vermetele manier om ze juist gewoonweg te lijf te gaan en de koe bij de horens te vatten. De toon van Zweig is -- zoals steeds -- fluweelzacht en bikkelhard tegelijk. Een ijzeren vuist in zijdezachte handschoenen. Ik zat bij de oogarts en bleef nog een paar zinnen verderlezen toen ik werd binnengeroepen, zo 'spannend' vond ik het.

[Didem Gürpınar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zweig ve Nietzsche’nin muhteşem buluşması! Klasik otobiyografilerden çok farklı bir eser. Nietzsche’nin yaşadığı acıları, buhranları çok etkileyici bir dille aktamış Zweig.

Zweig’ın Nietzsche’ye bakış açısı bu cümlelerle çok güzel özetlenmiş:

“ Ancak trajik bir doğaya sahip olanların sayesinde hissetmenin derinliğini fark ediyoruz. Ve sadece ölçüsüz olanların sayesinde insanlık kendi olanca sınırının farkına varıyor.”

Nietzsche ve Zweig severlere kesinlikle tavsiye ederim.

[Kamakana · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

290715: hagiographic bio/essay on nietzsche by stefan zweig (i have shelves of both)... fevered, fictionalized, this was just a random pickup when i was at the u bookstore getting an order..

[Fardokht Sn · Rating 3 out of 5]

افسوس که از تب های ناشناخته از پا افتاد
لرزان در برابر پیکان های برّا و یخ زده ی سرما...

ای تفکر ناگفتنی!
تاریک ... هولناک ....

من اسیر تو ام !

[Simonh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je moet niet schrijven over mensen waar je te groot fan van bent.

[M. Sarki · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/ni...

...It is these fifteen years of suffering and transcendence that Zweig concentrates on, while the Basel period and the final descent into madness in Italy form the outer casing, the necessary germination period and dying back after the productive harvest…

...To profit most from existence, man must live dangerously…What matters is eternal vitality, not eternal life…he who thinks to be in the possession of the truth, will never see how many things elude him!...

...Without listeners or echo, the most extraordinary drama of the spirit ever granted to our troubled century is played out to its bitter end before an empty house…Nietzsche was doomed, condemned to unremitting thought, like the wild hunter of legend condemned to hunt eternally; what was his pleasure became his torment, his affliction; and his breath, his diction, has that wild leaping, the heat and palpitations of a tracked prey; his soul has the ambition and raging thirst of one who can never rest and is never satisfied…

...Absence of clarity and moral feculence depress and agitate him…He sniffs out with unerring certitude all that has been infected with morality, through the incense of churches, artificial untruths, patriotic slogans or any other narcotic of consciousness; he has a fine sense of smell for all that is rotten, corrupted and unhealthy, to nose out the lingering odour of intellectual poverty that resides in the mind; lucidity, purity, cleanliness are the necessary conditions for his intellect, but also his body (as I suggested earlier), requires pure air and clear sharp contours; psychology is as he himself suggests, ‘an interpretation of the body’, the prolongation of a nervous disposition into the domain of the mind…

...Nietzsche risks himself totally, he who continually approaches peril ‘not only with the antennae of icy thought’, but with all the ecstasies and torments of his blood, with all the impetus of his destiny…Only those possessed by the demon can endure the miracle of that fervid exclusion, right to the very core of their painting, their music, their words…Music always transports with great force those men who are prey to some upheaval, depleted, subjected to violent tensions and torn to their very entrails by some passion…

...But not only does nobody buy them, even when he gives them away, at the end Nietzsche has no more readers. On the fourth section of Zarathustra, printed at his own expense, he acquires only forty copies and out of the seventy million inhabitants of Germany, he could only find seven people to whom he could send them, so that at peak of his work, he had become a total stranger, inaccessible and foreign to his own epoch…He craved any response, whether hot or cold, or even lukewarm, just anything that might actually prove the value of his existence and spiritual life...the wound of no reply...

...If you stare for a long time into the abyss the abyss will stare back at you…

[raniabmrk · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
Ce livre était bien écrit, l'écriture de Zweig est toujours aussi splendide et douée d'une sensibilité. Mais encore une fois j'ai détesté le format autobiographique, et maintenant même sous forme d'histoire. Pour autant le début du livre était captivant.

[Matthew Wilder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first couple of chapters of Zweig’s overview take what we would now call slick magazine prose to the height of art. Imagining a cheerless Nietzsche, forced to eat gruel and water by the hypersensitivity of his guts (and every other part of his thought-racked body), shuffling about what one imagines to be somewhere between a pensione and a youth hostel, Zweig gets into the heart, if you will, of the man through the most Nietzschean of means—bodily means. Zweig makes you feel every room, every flavorless cup of lukewarm tea. And from these hideous sensations he moves to the philosophy. The bodiliness of Nietzsche’s writing, the obsession with “rude good health” (what if it were polite?), provokes the bullshit-caller in Zweig—though he lands on the thesis that Nietzsche was, at bottom, a rank masochist, one who felt pain fed his endeavors. Do you buy it? I don’t, and I read the Collected Works but a moment ago.

As the book goes on, it feels stretched, artificially puffed up. It really would have been better at the size of your average Vanity Fair profile. And in the end one comes to feel Zweig overly inflates Nietzsche’s weirdness and aloneness because the Zarathustran is so fundamentally alien to Zweig’s fundamentally bourgeois sensibilities. It’s like reading Michael Lewis generating 20,000 words on Courtney Love—in other words, a bit much!

[Özer Öz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zweig'in Niçe anlatımı harika, tam da kalbinin içinde. Spekülatif Nietzsche yorumlarını temizlemede birebir bir biyografi.

[Alexander Rubins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eccentric. More of an extended testimonial confessing Zweig’s own love for Nietzsche than a biography. You probably end up learning more about Zweig as a man than Nietzsche but his prose is so entertaining it doesn’t matter. Wouldn’t recommend it though.

[Aurore Choupie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my type cup of tea : at all.

J'ai pas détesté mais quel intérêt vraiment. C'est un poème à la gloire de Nietzsche plus ou moins bien réussi.

[WillemC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een intellectuele biografie die niet focust op wat, maar op hoe en waarom de filosoof denkt en schrijft. Zweig neemt ons mee in het dramatische aspect van Nietzsches tragische leven - de ziektes en kwalen, de eenzaamheid, het miskende genie - en doet dat in zijn eigen onnavolgbare stijl. Een aanrader, al zijn de hyperbolen en de schaamteloze idolatrie soms wel wat moeilijk verteerbaar. 4.25/5

"Regen, donkere luchten deprimeren zijn vitaliteit ("van een bewolkte hemel word ik neerslachtig"), de plaag van een dicht opeengepakt wolkendek voelt hij in zijn ingewanden, regen "geeft je een gevoel van machteloosheid", vochtigheid put je uit, droogte stimuleert, de zon brengt verlossing."

"Nog nooit was apocalyptische woede agressiever tegen dovemans oren gericht, nog nooit was de heerlijke hybris van een geest zo boven al het aardse uitgestegen."

[Hussein Dehghani · Rating 3 out of 5]

فریدریش ویلهلم نیچه فیلسوف، شاعر، آهنگساز و فیلولوژیست کلاسیک بزرگ آلمانی بود.
از مشهورترین عقاید وی نقد فرهنگ، دین و فلسفۀ امروزی بر مبنای سؤالات بنیادینی دربارۀ بنیان ارزش‌ها و اخلاق بوده‌است. نوشته‌های وی سبک تازه‌ای در زبان آلمانی محسوب می‌شد؛ نوشته‌هایی بسیار ژرف و پر از ایجاز، آمیخته با افکاری انقلابی که نیچه خود روش نوشتاری خویش را گزین‌گویی‌ها می‌نامید.یکی از گفتارهای نیچه: اگر یکی از اهداف خدا دوست‌داشتن و عشق‌ورزیدن می‌بود؛ اولین کاری که او می‌کرد چشم‌پوشی از قضاوت و دادرسی بود؛ چراکه یک دادرسی و قضاوت هیچ ارتباطی به محبت و عشق‌ورزی ندارد.
اطلاعات وسیع نیچه در زمینه زبان‌ها، تاریخ، فرهنگ، از جمله یونانی و رومی و پژوهش‌هایی که صورت می‌دهد نشان از تسلط او درباره فرهنگ و فلسفه ایران باستان دارد. در روزگار تراژیک یونانیان، که هر دو از نخستین آثار او می‌باشد. شناخت او در باره تاریخ و فرهنگ یونان و روم، مطالعه آثار تاریخی بازمانده از ایران باستان، سبب آشنایی و علاقه وافر او با تاریخ و فرهنگ ایران باستان گردید. آثار او شامل پاره‌نوشته‌ها و یادداشت‌های بازمانده در دفترهای او که حجم زیادی از کل نوشته‌های او را شامل می‌گردد، از فرهنگ ایران باستان مکرراً یاد می‌کند. دلبستگی نیچه به ایران و ستایش فرهنگ باستانی آن را در کتاب «چنین گفت زرتشت» در مورد تفکر فلسفه اشو زردشت می‌توان به وضوح دید و نیز نهادن نام وی برکتاب، سعی در با ارزش نشان‌دادن تحقیقات خود است.
در ابتدای کتاب آمده است: تراژدی فریدریش نیچه یک درام تک‌بازیگر است: هیچ بازیگر دیگری در صحنۀ کوتاه زندگی او حضور ندارد. در طول پرده‌های این تراژدی که بسان بهمن فرو می‌ریزد، مبارز منزوی در زیر آسمان توفانی سرنوشتش تنها است. هیچ‌کس در کنارش نیست، هیچ‌کسی در تقابل با او نیست، هیچ زنی نیست تا با حضور مهربانش فضای به وجود آمده را ملایم کند. هر حرکتی فقط از خود او سر می‌زند و خود او تنها شاهد است. در ابتدا چهره‌های نادری این خطر را کردند که در سایۀ او فقط با حرکتی گنگ از سر ترس و شگفتی اقدام قهرمانانۀ او را همراهی کنند اما انگار که در برابر مهلکه‌ای قرار گرفته باشند، کم‌کم پراکنده شدند.
همه‌چیز او را به هیجان می‌آورد و هیچ‌چیز او را پایبند نمی‌کند. همین که موضوعی بکربودن و جذابیت و راز حیایش را از دست می‌دهد، آن را بی هیچ ترحمی رها می‌کند، بی اینکه به کسانی که بعد از او می‌آیند حسادت کند. نیچه هم از ورای تمام شناخت‌ها، شناخت را می‌جوید؛ شناختی که به طرزی ابدی غیرواقعی است و هرگز کاملاً دست‌یافتنی نیست. چیزی که تا سرحد رنج و نومیدی او را برمی‌انگیزاند، نه تصرف‌کردن، نه تصاحب‌کردن و نه لذت‌بردن است، بلکه همیشه پرسش‌کردن، جستجوکردن و شکارکردن است.
فهرست مطالب کتاب بدین قرار است:
تراژدی بی‌بازیگر
چهرۀ دورو
ستایش بیماری
شور صداقت
پیشرفت به سوی خود
کشف جنوب
پناه به موسیقی
هفتمین تنهایی
رقص بر فراز پرتگاه
مربی آزادی

[rox ⋆☕︎ ˖ · Rating 3 out of 5]

pas forcément le meilleur ouvrage pour aborder Nietzsche contrairement à ce que je pensais

j’ai quand même aimé la manière dont Zweig nous fait ressentir (et donc mieux comprendre?) la façon dont il a sombré dans la folie, au lieu de simplement se contenter de dire qu’il est devenu fou et le stigmatiser comme tout le monde se plaît à le faire

[Zeynep Gunduz Seyhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

. Büyük bir üstat düşünün: filolog, filozof, şair, yazar, kültür eleştirmeni,besteci... 1800lerin ikinci yarısından günümüze kadar adını tarihe kazımış, her dönem okuyucusu çok olmuş biri. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. . 🖋Şimdi bir de adeta yazmak için doğmuş, kelimeleri dans ettiren, kısacık metinlere bile yoğun duygular yükleyebilen , edebiyatı iliğimize kemiğimize kadar işleyen bir yazar düşünün. Stefan Zweig. .
🖋Şimdi de bu iki büyük ustayı bir araya getiren bir kitap düşünün. Zweig’in kaleme aldığı Nietzsche biyografisi, daha önce okuduğunuz biyografileri unutturacak türden. Bilgi odaklı akademik dilden uzak, edebiyatın muhteşemliğini gözler önüne sunan bir #başyapıt Kitabı elinize alıp sayfaları çevirmeye başladığınızda, Nietzsche’yi okumuyor Nietzsche oluyorsunuz. Yaşadığı her duyguyu hissediyor, o anı yaşıyorsunuz. Tam da bu sebeplerden dolayı kitabı hem Zweig severlere hem de Nietzsche hayranlarına mutlak surette öneriyorum. .
🖋 “Dürüstlüğümün bittiği noktada körüm. Bilmek istediğim yerde, dürüst olmayı da istiyorum, yani sert, katı, daraltıcı, gaddar ve Ödün vermez.” .

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, and I will admit I don't know much about Nietzsche. This is what I learned about Nietzsche in this book: he was the Kurt Cobain of philosophers and constantly ill due to his "nervous aggitation." From the description he probably had a mood disorder like manic depression. That doesn't mean he was not a genius, he just had his own mood swing.

[Gokhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hem Zweig hem de Nietzsche seven benim için okuduğum güzel bir biyografi.

Kavradığım her şey ışığa dönüşüyor. Bıraktığımsa kömüre. Şüphesiz alevim ben.

Izdırap her zaman sebepleri sorgular, oysa keyif daha çok, olduğu yerde durmaya ve geriye bakmamaya meyillidir.

[Eduardo Moraes · Rating 4 out of 5]

PART I. A DANGEROUS LIFE

Maybe the thrill in our veins when we read Nietzsche derives from the sense of danger that his words exhale: he’s inviting us to dance near the abyss, and without safety nets. Nietzsche desires life to be risky and full of surprises, and is furious against all tendencies of sheepish conformity. A true lover of art and poetry, Nietzsche was both a great thinker and a great artist – one who claimed that “we have art so that we might not die of the truth.” For him, an authentic “free spirit” doesn’t shy away from confrontation with the riddles of existence, even the most scary and painful ones: if you want knowledge, you’ll have to face the monsters of the abyss, and let the abyss stare into you!

As Karl Jaspers wrote on his awesome book about Nietzsche, the philosopher worthy of his task is a figure similar to Theseus: he enters boldily into the labyrinth, willing to be face the danger of being eaten by Minotaurs. In Stefan Zweig’s writings on Nietzsche we feel the emphasis falling upon the dangerousness of Nietzsche life and fate. In his introduction, Will Stone recalls how much Zweig’s book focuses on “the decisive abandonment of security by Nietzsche and his propensity to take an ever more self-destructive tightrope walk, where all safety nets are strictly forbidden.” (Will Stone, Introduction, XIX)

“Voluntarily, in all lucidity, renouncing a secure existence, Nietzsche constructs his unconventional life with the most profound tragic instinct, defying the gods with unrivalled courage, to experience himself the highest degree of danger in which man can live.” (Zweig, p. 6)

Few philosophy books can be said to be as exciting as a roller-coaster ride or a bungee-jump. I believe Nietzsche’s impact on posterity has to do, partly, with those adrenaline shots we receive from his writings. We can re-read his words many times because they provoke us, entice us, marvel us, enfuriate us – but hardly ever leave us indiferent. The flame of life, in each to us, seems to burn more brightly and intensely when we come to spend so time in company with Nietzsche’s flaming words. My experience as a reader of Nietzsche’s books leads me to cherish him as a powerful voice who affects people deeply – some may disagree with him, but this disagreement itself is usually so vehement and intense that it serves as a sign of the echoes, either consonant or dissonant, that Nietzsche’s words arouses. Philosophy in the 20th century was profoundly shaken and inspired by Nietzsche’s books, but in his life, as Zweig points out, he was eaten alive, bit by bit, by the demon of solitude.

Despite his attempts to make his voice be heard, many commentators point out that Nietzsche lived an utterly lonely, isolated existence – “a solitude deprived even of God”, writes Zweig. Nietzsche ended up “crushed by the world’s silence.” (pgs. 5-7) In the following lines, Zweig is less a biographer than a painter: he’s trying to get us in synch with the philosopher’s emotional mood: “One feels here is a man residing in the shadows, apart from all social conviviality, (…) a man who over the years has lost the habit of social interaction and dreads the prospect of being asked too many questions.” (pg. 10)

Nietzsche’s health can be seen as one reason for his choice of an isolated life-style, but it doesn’t explain why the philosopher chose to cut himself even from the most basic of relationships needed, for survival reasons, for someone in his condition: the relationship with a doctor! Nietzsche rarely sought aid of professionals in the medicine field: he mostly self-medicated. He kept away from alcoholic beverages, never drank cofee nor smoked cigarettes. His pension-room had always among its furnishing elements, according to Zweig’s lively description, “an horrifying arsenal of poisons and narcotics”:

“On a shelf, innumerable bottles, flasks and tinctures: for headaches, which regularly occupy so many wasted hours, for stomach cramps, spasmodic vomiting, instestinal weakness, and above all, those terrible medicaments to control insomnia – chloral and veronal.” (11)

Imagine Zweig as a painter, and his words as drawings in our imagination, and let’s hear how he further paints Nietzsche portrait: the philosopher’s eye-sight is poor, without his glasses he would be blind as a bat. But that seems to be no impediment to his will to devote so much energy into the activities of reading and writing (which demand so much eye-labor). Most nights, Nietzsche’s brain just won’t turn off, and he can only restore his energies by sleep if he ingests some kind of soporific medicine.

“Sometimes he spends the whole day confined to bed. And no one comes to his aid, not even a helping hand, no one to lay a cool compress on his burning brow. No one to read to him, to chat with him, to laugh with him… never a warm naked female body beside his own.” (p. 11-12)

A grim picture of disease and loneliness is painted before our eyes by these Zweigian words, but they serve merely as background for the main figure in the painting: a tragic hero in the realm of knowledge, Nietzsche himself, and the process by which he falls down into the abyss. Would we dare, right here and right now, rebelling against the silence that springs from his grave, delve into the mystery of Nietzsche’s life and death?

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Zweig seems to want his reader to pity the fragile and lonesome state of poor Nietzsche – friendless, abandoned, unloved. I couldn’t help imagining how Nietzsche himself would judge Zweig’s portrait. Nietzsche himself was never attracted by self-pity, and it may be argued that he chose voluntarily to lead a life in which we wouldn’t bother others with his health issues – as if he was trying to put to practise a radical attempt at self-reliance, even in the worst conditions. As Jacob Burckhardt points out, Nietzsche lived as if his task were “to increase independence in the world” (quoted by Zweig, pg. 89), and it’s hard to imagine a philosopher who took so seriously the task of being independent. The fluctuations of his health had profound impact upon his emotional state and the “mood” of his tought: by his own life-experience Nietzsche extracted awesome insights into the inner workings of the human mind. He’s arguably one of the greatest psychologists of the 19st century (he claimed to have learnt psychology mainly with Stendhal and Dostoivésvki), an certainly a pioneer in pre-Freudian times.

Zweig’s book focuses a lot on Nietzsche’s life, especially the connection between his existential loneliness and his outstanding artistic and philosophical productions. It leads the reader to ask himself: why did this philosopher, who had demolished the moral ideals of asceticism (mainly in his Genealogy of Morals), chose to live in a condition of isolation similar to those hermits he criticised so much? What caused Nietzsche’s attitude of removal from sociability: was it arrogance or pride ? What could have acted as an impediment in the route to Alterity, in Nietzsche’s life? What was the obstacle he couldn’t trespass, keeping him from crying out for help and accepting the aid of human love? Were the people around him to blame for being indiferent and uncomprohensive?

According to Zweig, aways, everywhere he lived, Nietzsche was a foreigner. And that usually doesn’t make easier the task of building friendship. It can’t be said that friendship is highly valued in his books. And it doesn’t seem to me that Nietzsche pursued in his life, with much interest or passion, a quest for human warmth and love. Lou Salomé is maybe the sole female figure in Nietzsche’s life to have aroused in him some kind of dream about redemption by love, some passionate widening of his emotional chest to the realm of the Other, but we know well things didn’t turn out that rosely. Nietzsche couldn’t see la vie en rose and his passion for Lou Salomé turned out to be a devasting heart-break. After the rupture with Lou Salomé, facing what he calls “the greatest crisis of his life”, he writes Zarathustra, a work-of-art and an philosophical poem that carry the mark of something unique. His bond with Lou had collapsed, in ruins were all the bridges of dreams, and in utter solitude he set out to write a book about a character who spent ten years far from all human contact, and tries to re-descend among the humans, to reveal what he learned whilst dwelling in the wilderness, only to discover that everyone miscomprehends him. A book born out of Nietzsche’s abyss, filled with dancing stars, chaotic and colourful as life itself.

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PART II. THE WOUND OF NO REPLY

“The year-in year-out lack of a really refreshing and healing human love, the absurd loneliness that it brings with it, to the degree that almost every remaining connection with people becomes only a cause of injury; all that is the worst possible business and has only one justification in itself, the justification of being necessary.” – Letter sent by Nietzsche to his friend Overbeck, 3.2.88

Much speculation about Nietzsche breakdown in Turin is to be found in dozens of books. To this pile of speculation, Zweig adds his own contribution:

“For 15 years this cave life of Nietzsche continues from rented room to rented room, while he remains unknown…. only the flight of Dostoyevsky, almost at the same moment in time, with equitable poverty and neglect, is illuminated by the same cold grey spectral light. Here, as there, the work of a titan conceals the gaunt figure of the poor Lazarus who daily expires from his despair and infirmity in solitude, as day by day, the miracle savior of creative will awakens him from the depths. For 15 years, Nietzsche emerges thus from the coffin of his room, moving upwards and downwards, with suffering upon suffering, death upon death, resurrection upon resurrection, until, over-heated by such a flood of energy, his brain breaks apart. (…) Un-accompanied and unkown, the most lucid genius of the spirit rushes headlong into his own night.” (13)

Tough Nietzsche suffered a lot, he didn’t turn angrily against life, nor did he sought final relief in suicide. His philosophy is born out of the dwellings of his mind with his pains: “pain always searches to know the causes, whilst pleasure remains in a fixed position and does not look backwards”, he wrote. “Mighty pain is the last liberator of the spirit; she alone forces us to descend into out ultimate dephts.” And elsewhere: “I know life better, because I have so often been at the point of losing it.” (p. 23)

“Nietzsche never sets up house, with a view to economizing and conserving, he builds no spiritual home; he wants (or perhaps he is forced by the nomadic instinct in his nature) to remain eternally without possessions, the solitary Nimrod who wanders with his weapons through all the forests of the spirit, who has no roof, no wife, no child, no servant, but who, on the other hand, has the thrill and pleasure of the hunt; like Don Juan, he adores not the enduring feeling but the fleeting moments of greatness and ecstasy. He is solely attracted by an adventure of the spirit, by that ‘dangerous perhaps’ that stimulates and excites as long as the chase is on but as soon as attainmet is reached loses its grip.” (29)

In Zweig’s perspective, Nietzsche sounds the alarms and alerts us – prophetically – against the ills of nationalism and praises cosmopolitism:

“Nietzsche is content to be without country, without home or possessions, cut off forever from that ‘parochialism of the fatherland’, from all ‘patriotic subjugation’. His perspective will be the lofty one of the bird in flight, of the ‘good European’, of that ‘essentially nomadic race of men who exist outside of nations’. (…) Once Nietzsche has established himself in the south, he steps definitively beyond his past; he is peremptorily de-Germanized, de-Christianized… the navigator to the realm of the future is too happy to be embarking on ‘the fastest ship to Cosmopolis’ to experience any nostalgia for his unilateral, uniform and univocal fatherland. That is why all attempts to re-Germanize him should be strongly condemned.

At the same time as de-Germanizing him, the south also serves to de-Christianize him completely. Whilst like a lizard he enjoys the sun on his back and his soul is lit right through to his innermost nerves, he ponders what exactly had left the world in shadow for so long, made it so anguished, so troubled, so demoralized, so cowardly conscious of sin, what had robbed the most natural, the most serene, the most vital things of their true value, and had prematurely aged what was most precious in the universe, life itself. Christianity is identified as the culprit, for its belief in the hereafter, the key principle that casts its dark cloud over the modern world.This ‘malodorous Judaism, concocted of Rabbinic doctrines and superstition’ has crushed and stifled sensuality, the exhilaration of the world and for fifty generationshas been the most lethal narcotic, causing moral paralysis in what was once a genuine life force. But now (and here he sees his life as a mission), the crusade of the future agains the cross has finally begun, the reconquest of the most sacred country of humanity: the life of the world.” (pg. 61-63)

Zweig also suggests that, with Nietzsche, it appears for the first time upon the high seas of German philosophy the black flag of a pirate ship. With Nietzsche, it dawns

“a new brand of heroism, a philosophy no longer clad in professorial and scholarly robes, but armed and armored for the struggle. Others before him, comparably bold and heroic navigators of the spirit, had discovered continents and empires; but with only a civilizing and utilitarian interest, in order to conquer them for humanity, in order to fill in the philosophical map, penetrating deeper into the terra incognita of thought. They plant the flag of God or of the spirit on the newly conquered lands, they construct cities, temples and new roads in the novelty of the unkown and on their heels come the governors and administrators, to work the acquired terrain and harvest from it the commentators and teachers, men of culture. But the final objective of their labours is rest, peace and stability: they want to increase the possessions of the world, propagate norms and laws, establish a superior order.

Nietzsche, in contrast, storms into German philosophy like the filibusters making their entrance into the Spanish empire at the end of the 16th century, a wild unruly swashbuckling swarm of desperados, without nation, ruler, king, flag, home or residence. Like them he conquers nothing for himself, or anyone following him, not for a god, or a king, or a faith, but uniquely for the pleasure of conquest, for he wants to acquire, conquer and possess nothig. He concludes no treaty nor build a house, he scorns the rules of war put in place by philosophers and he seeks no disciple… Nothing was more foreign to Nietzsche than to merely proceed towards the habitual objective of philosophers, to an equilibrium of feeling, to repose in a tranquilitas, a sated brown wisdom at the rigid point of a unique conviction. He spends and consumes successive convictions, rejecting what he has acquired, and for this reason we would do better to call him Philaleth, a fervent lover of Aletheia, truth, that chaste and cruelly seducing godess, who unceasingly, like Artemis, lures her lovers into an eternal hunt only to remain ever inaccesible behind her tattered veils.” (pg. 43)

In Nietzsche’s fate we can read the tragedy of someone who, tortured by disease and anguish, embarks head-on in Knowledge’s dangerous adventure. Alone and frail, but bold and curious, he’s a man who, like a serpent, exchanged skins thoughout his life. But, as Zweig points out, his only homeland was solitude. Wherever he lays his hat, there he’s alone. He journeys through the land, but doesn’t seem ever to leave loneliness behind. There’s a song by Portishead in which Beth Gibbons wails: “This loneliness just won’t leave me alone”. It’s quite possible Nietzsche knew a lot about this emotional mood. The philosopher has been acquainted with the blues. Sometimes, it seems, he tries to believe isolation is a merit and that the geniuses of humanity shouldn’t mix with the riff-raff – that’s why many nostrils can smell arrogance in Nietzsche attitude, some aristocratical eliticism, as if the man believes he shouldn’t wallow in the mud of common vulgarities.

This loner consoles himself, to lessen the pains of his solitude, with the idea that posterity will understand and honour him. Free spirits yet to be born keep him company through his darkest hours. He warms himself by the fireside of his imagination of future glories. Zarathustra is filled with images, bursting from a mind intoxicated by poetry, of better days to come, of men who have outgrown mankind as we know it. The question I pose is: how maddening is it to seek human warmth on the imaginary realm? Can you cure yourself from loneliness with the dreamt shadow of future friends?

In Nietzsche’s final years, he gets increasing bombastic. Now he brags he’s dynamite. His previous books were almost completely ignored by the general population of the planet, and he can’t deal with this easily, emotionally speaking: he felt “only immutable solitude multiplied” and this is what, according to Zweig, “turns his soul gangrenous”: the wound of no reply.” (75)

His descent into the abyss is portrayed by Zweig as a tragedy of utter solitude. Nietzsche sinks, his brain shatters, because the burden of the world’s indifference and deafness is too much to bear. Nietzsche’s own judgement of his past achievements, in Ecce Homo, may sound deeply narcisistic and self-glorifying: he believes, for example, that Zarathustra is the biggest gift ever given to humanity, the greatest book ever written, and that whole universities should be created and devoted to its study. Some chapters of Nietzsche’s intriguing auto-biography are filled with self-celebration and megalomania, as if he’s trampling modesty underfoot: Nietzsche explains to his readers why he is so wise, how does he manage to write such great books, and considers himself to be an event in History that will divide it in two epochs. Zweig’s interpretation invites us to understand this as a symptom of his social isolation, of his frustration about the silence that surrounded his ideas, and which was so rarely broken in Europe during his life (only George Brandes, professor in Copenhagen, made an effort to spread Nietzsche’s ideas in academic circles during the philosopher’s life).

When he reached the period when he wrote his last books – among them are The Antichrist, Twilight of the Idols, Ecce Homo… - Nietzsche seems to be increasingly furious, bombastic. He writes with outbursts of rage and indignation, striving to get some answer from the world around him. Even hostility from readers seems to him to be better than silent indifference. This is how Zweig describes this late Nietzschean works:

“There are contained the most unbridled scornful cries of rage and heavy groans of suffering, flayed from his body by the whip of impatience, a savage growling through foaming mouth and bared teeth… provoking his epoch so that they react and let go a howl of rage..."

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