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Nietzsche's Friends and Enemies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Just thirty years ago, R. J. Hollingdale began the introductio to one of his translations with the defensive question: “Why read a book by Nietzsche?” Now these same books are being simultaneously retranslated in several competing editions, so eager are university presses to capitalize on the academic bonanza that Friedrich Nietzsche has become. Many of Nietzsche's works were first published in print runs of some two hundred copies. We have now reached the point where there are many more books about Nietzsche than there were once copies of the original titles themselves. In the past decade alone, as a quick computer search will inform anyone, nearly three hundred volumes have been written concerning Nietzsche's work, his relation to other philosophers and cultural figures, and his effect on every aspect of our contemporary existence. Even for those seriously concerned with Nietzsche's philosophy, keeping up with this literature is a nearly impossible task. If forty days and forty nights were enough to cover the earth with water, then the flood of Nietzsche literature is perhaps nearing the thirty-eighth day. Once is almost tempted simply to wait until the waters have receded and then to see what, if anything, remains.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2000

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References

Appel, Fredrick: Nietzsche Contra Democracy. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp. xv, 174. $29.95)Google Scholar

Klossowski, Pierre: Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle. Translated by Smith, Daniel W.. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Pp. xx, 282. $50.00. $19.95, paper.)Google Scholar

Köhler, Joachim: Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation. Translated by Taylor, Ronald. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. 186. $25.00)Google Scholar