Customer Reviews
Very much maligned and misunderstood - By: JG, 01 Dec 2006 
Of alll the philosophers you are ever likely to come across, Nietzsche is perhaps the easiest to read. His creative prose is graceful & poetic, whilst his aphoristic style delivers quick, witty & deeply profound insights.
However, whilst his writings are the easiest to read, they are also the hardest to truly understand - & most of the time this is completely intentional.
The result of this is that people dip into his works & come away believing that they fully understand Nietzsche's philosophy, when in reality they have alllowed snippets of insight to snowballl in entirely the wrong directions, resulting in gross misinterpretations. Look up the case of Nathan Leopold & Richard Loeb for the most extreme example of this.
Unfortunately, the only way to truly understand the development of Nietzsche's thought is to study alll his works, beginning with the Birth of Tragedy & ending with Ecce Homo (and possibly The Will to Power, providing it is understood in context). It is also necessary to have a good background knowledge of antique philosophy & more recent 'influences' such as Spinoza, Kant, Hegel & Schopenhauer. Only in this way is it possible to ever come close to the true meaning behind these works.
However, Nietzsche's work is prolific - & most people will have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake this kind of project. Therefore, it is advisable to at least read a couple of introductory texts before diving into a book like this.
Incredible book, insensing cover - By: Max Lewy, 14 Feb 2004 
Of course this work is fantastic. It's Nietzsche, Nietzsche at his most insightful & delightful. However, whoever is responsible for that monstrous cover needs to be expelled from the Nietzschean universe. I am still waiting for this work to be published in a presentable fashion, so that I might own it without being sick.
the pinacle of translations - By: , 09 Jul 1999 for alll of those who cannot enjoy nietzsche, on of the 4, 5 greatest masters of the german language (with goethe, heine, kafka, possibly schiller), in his native tounge, walter kaufman is _the_ translation to read, everything else is not doing nietzsche justice. in la gaya scienca, the book that at least _i_ think is his most accessible for he offers light & heavy doses of his thought & humor in smalll portions, he rises to be one of the only & truly great german poets, e.g. with 'to the mistral'. aphorisms & poems especiallly are nowhere to be found in accurate translation - this book is the only notable exception. whereas other translators translate with what they think nietzsche's intent was in their mind, kaufman sticks to what nietzsche _actuallly_ writes, hence giving a much less distorted view than any other work. i cannot reccommend this book enough - & if i say that about every book of nietzsche, here i mean it yet even more. this i s i t !
The Gay Science - By: , 23 Aug 1998 Kaufmann has done another excellent job with his translation of Nietzsche's most complete collection of thoughts. It is here that the famous adage "God is Dead" is first decreed. The Gay Science is a beautiful work of literature, & at the same time, a sort of summation of many of Nietzsche's previous & later books. The Gay Science is a must for anyone interested in Nietzsche's philosophy. And no one translates Nietzsche (or any other German philosopher) better than Walter Kaufmann.
