I Am Dynamite!
A Life of Nietzsche
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4.1 • 15 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice • THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE
A groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will to power, slave morality—have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the human condition. But what do most people really know of Nietzsche—beyond the mustache, the scowl, and the lingering association with nihilism and fascism? Where do we place a thinker who was equally beloved by Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Martin Buber, and Adolf Hitler?
Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing—overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father—through his teaching career, lonely philosophizing on high mountains, and heart-breaking descent into madness, Prideaux documents Nietzsche’s intellectual and emotional life with a novelist’s insight and sensitivity.
She also produces unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé, the femme fatale who broke his heart; and his sister Elizabeth, a rabid German nationalist and anti-Semite who manipulated his texts and turned the Nietzsche archive into a destination for Nazi ideologues.
I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This scintillating biography of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche illuminates a man struggling constantly to reshape accepted ideas about society, morality, and religion. Drawing on close readings of his writings and on archival research, Prideaux (Strindberg: A Life) traces the outline of the philosopher's life, from his father's death when Nietzsche was four years old and his early education at his mother's knee, through his days at gymnasium, where he excelled in languages, to his early and pivotal friendship with Wagner, his romance with the writer Lou Salome, and his slow and lonely descent into dementia. Even as a teenager, Prideaux shows, Nietzsche was developing his knack for striking language, and by the time he met Wagner, Nietzsche had developed his own style one centered around the struggles between reason and instinct and "between life and art." Given that ideas from Nietzsche's later work the need to overcome, the will to power, and the bermensch were later appropriated by Nazis, Prideaux is at pains to show that his philosophy focused on the "need to overcome ourselves," not others. Nietzsche often compared his writing to dancing, and Prideaux's invigorating study captures the joyous and often ebullient character of this writer's deeply influential work.
Customer Reviews
Excellent biography
Detailed and well researched. Provides the cultural context for his ideas, and details his intellectual development.
Zzzzzzzz
Couldn’t get into it. No clue what was going on.