Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche

by Friedrich Nietzsche

• This e-book publication is a unique translation of a collection of the great German philosopher’s letters.

• A new table of contents with working links has been included by a publisher.

• This edition has been proof-read and corrected for spelling and grammatical errors.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, German Literature

173 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing particularly special about Middleton's selections from Nietzsche's letters. What one wants is a complete set of all extant correspondence, including the relevant letters of his communicants, with annotations, index and source notes.
I read this while taking Hans Siegfried's Nietzsche course at Loyola University Chicago.

[Niloofar · Rating 1 out of 5]

باورم نمیشه دارم به نامه‌های زیبای نیچه یک میدم
اما اصلا نفهمیدم چی خوندم
نگارش ، ترجمه ، ویراستاری و درکل بخوام بگم املای کتاب درحد بچه‌ی اول دبستان بود
حرص خوردم و خوندم
و یک امتیاز هم فقط به خاطر گل روی نیچه است و بس 😂😐

[Matthew Boylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best source of Nietzsche's correspondence with friends and family, all collected within one easily accessible selection.

Pretty insightful and useful source for academic use, but also interesting as a recreational read.

[Lancelot · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I am never far; my thoughts always circle around you.”

[Gregory Freeman · Rating 1 out of 5]

A formatting nightmare. The text blends in with the footnotes, oftentimes quite long disruptions which makes you have to go back and pick up the broken thread. After a while I just gave up. What I had read did not compel me to go forward or put up with the sloppy composition of the book. The letters (or what I had read) were pretty boring.

[Erik van Mechelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the footnotes and also the index particularly useful, springing between the letters as an amateur detective. What was I looking for? In short reflection, I've seen sentiments to mirror, and other signs to watch out for.

[Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this was published when his sister was still his executor

[S h a y a N · Rating 3 out of 5]

دو دلیل برای خوندن این کتاب وجود داره:
۱- مجذوب نیچه باشید.
۲- به نامه خوندن علاقه داشته باشید.
دلیل دیگه‌ای برای خوندنش وجود نداره و مطلب خاصی توش نیست.

[Mina Herz]

He’s surprisingly cute when he’s young.

[Noah Christiansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read:
- Letter 203
- Letter 206

[Unbridled · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the start, I would wonder aloud what young Fritz was going to complain about that day - by the end, even as his mind unravels, he finds his footing and barks to his march. Reading Kant punishes a lazy mind - by contrast, N is addictive because he is a robust writer - as daring as any and not unlike an infection, spreading fever. Before you know it, the volts are flying off the ends of your hairs. Overall, I still can't say his letters were an exciting read - but informative, illuminating, yes. Poor Fritz and his (lifelong) physical and psychological suffering - punished, as it were, from nearly the start, with a profoundly lonely life. Painfully, powerfully lonely. This leads to a final question - was it worth it? Simplistic to ask, yes - but it comes through the correspondence like a white hot wire. Fritz was very aware of the nature of his own suffering - but he also believed the will to honesty was the highest virtue. So what was it? Ultimately? I quote the man himself, outside of his letters: "What are man's truths ultimately? Merely his irrefutable errors." The poor man needed a good woman. Anyway, some excerpts:

"One is honest about oneself either with a sense of shame or with vanity."

Letter to Gast, 8/14/1881: "Ah, my friend, sometimes the idea runs through my head that I am living an extremely dangerous life, for I am one of those machines which can explode. The intensities of my feeling make me shudder and laugh; several times I could not leave my room for the ridiculous reason that my eyes were inflamed - from what? Each time, I had wept too much on my previous day's walk, not sentimental tears but tears of joy; I sang and talked nonsense, filled with a glimpse of things which put me in advance of all other men."

Letter to Salome, 1882: "Lastly, my dear Lou, the old, deep, heartfelt plea: become the being you are! First, one has the difficulty of emancipating oneself from one's chains; and, ultimately, one has to emancipate oneself from this emancipation too! Each of us has to suffer, though in greatly differing ways, from the chain sickness, even after he has broken the chains."

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading his letters is not an efficient way of learning the philosophy of Nietzsche. They are fine for learning about his personality, but bogging one self down in the personality of an author and trivia about his life - what is the point in that?

We have some fine language in here, some interesting thoughts about the unification of Germany, some interesting details about life in the mid to late 1800s, but these letters are not essential reading.