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Nietzsche's Women: Beyond the Whip
The series presents outstanding monographic interpretations of Nietzsche's work as a whole or of specific themes and aspects. These works are written mostly from a philosophical, literary, communication science, sociological or historical perspective. The publications reflect the current state of research on Nietzsche's philosophy, on his sources, and on the influence of his writings. The volumes are peer-reviewed.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Carol Diethe
17 books2 followersCarol Diethe was formerly a Reader at Middlesex University.
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July 31, 2025
Great book if you want to learn more about Nietzsche’s personal life, specifically regarding the women he interacted with as well as the general thoughts he had regarding women in his philosophy.
This book cleared up numerous misconceptions that, I’m not ashamed to admit, even I shared.
In popular parlance, Nietzsche is seen as an incel, awkward around women and an antisocial loner. I myself thought many of these things to be the case — but as usual the truth is more complicated. Nietzsche not only had a pretty active sex life in certain periods: there were also, in fact, many women he had close friendships with, many women who had romantic feelings for him (many of which were one sided), and at least one of them (Louise Ott) good evidence that he probably had an affair.
There were women who confessed their love and tried to marry him, and women who loved him on such a deep level that they felt to marry him would be to taint his aristocratic nature (Meta Von Salis). The reality is that Nietzsche could well have married numerous times, but chose not to since he preferred solitude and independence. His half hearted attempts to the contrary consisted of being at his lowest point and even then, he didn’t really try with women he knew were interested.
The book also shows that Nietzsche had a very active social life, kept in contact with many of his friends regularly even after moving (his friendship with the Overbecks is particularly moving) and had many close friends and acquaintances throughout his life. The book also dispels the Lou Salome narrative which is completely untrue (he never proposed or had romantic feelings for her, it was simply misconstrued that way when he offered to propose to simply stop gossip, as he explains to Overbeck). His grief over losing Lou and Ree were about losing his closest friends (in Ree’s case, literally his best friend for 6 years) and the only people who, at that point truly understood him.
People take the (understandable) grief of 1882, after Nietzsche is left alone in winter where his best friends abandon him and he cuts off his family, as being representative of his philsophy. But it’s no surprise that Zarathustra was birthed at this time. He would overcome even this. Even in his later period, he had many friends and female admirers come stay with him in his boarding house, when he was completely unknown as an author.
Why are there so many lies surrounding Nietzsche? I believe this says more about us as a society than him as an individual. Still, I’m glad I read this book, and learned more about the philosophy and importantly, the man.
Btw, I only read part 1, maybe I’ll read part 2 in the future but I was far more interested in the biographical aspects of Ns life.
This book cleared up numerous misconceptions that, I’m not ashamed to admit, even I shared.
In popular parlance, Nietzsche is seen as an incel, awkward around women and an antisocial loner. I myself thought many of these things to be the case — but as usual the truth is more complicated. Nietzsche not only had a pretty active sex life in certain periods: there were also, in fact, many women he had close friendships with, many women who had romantic feelings for him (many of which were one sided), and at least one of them (Louise Ott) good evidence that he probably had an affair.
There were women who confessed their love and tried to marry him, and women who loved him on such a deep level that they felt to marry him would be to taint his aristocratic nature (Meta Von Salis). The reality is that Nietzsche could well have married numerous times, but chose not to since he preferred solitude and independence. His half hearted attempts to the contrary consisted of being at his lowest point and even then, he didn’t really try with women he knew were interested.
The book also shows that Nietzsche had a very active social life, kept in contact with many of his friends regularly even after moving (his friendship with the Overbecks is particularly moving) and had many close friends and acquaintances throughout his life. The book also dispels the Lou Salome narrative which is completely untrue (he never proposed or had romantic feelings for her, it was simply misconstrued that way when he offered to propose to simply stop gossip, as he explains to Overbeck). His grief over losing Lou and Ree were about losing his closest friends (in Ree’s case, literally his best friend for 6 years) and the only people who, at that point truly understood him.
People take the (understandable) grief of 1882, after Nietzsche is left alone in winter where his best friends abandon him and he cuts off his family, as being representative of his philsophy. But it’s no surprise that Zarathustra was birthed at this time. He would overcome even this. Even in his later period, he had many friends and female admirers come stay with him in his boarding house, when he was completely unknown as an author.
Why are there so many lies surrounding Nietzsche? I believe this says more about us as a society than him as an individual. Still, I’m glad I read this book, and learned more about the philosophy and importantly, the man.
Btw, I only read part 1, maybe I’ll read part 2 in the future but I was far more interested in the biographical aspects of Ns life.
Displaying 1 of 1 review