Very much maligned and misunderstood Of all the philosophers you are ever likely to come across, Nietzsche is perhaps the easiest to read. His creative prose is graceful and poetic, whilst his aphoristic style delivers quick, witty and deeply profound insights. However, whilst his writings are the easiest to read, they are also the hardest to truly understand - and most of the time this is completely intentional. The result of this is that people dip into his works and come away believing that they fully understand Nietzsche's... more info
Incredible book, insensing cover Of course this work is fantastic. It's Nietzsche, Nietzsche at his most insightful and 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 for all 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 and heavy doses of his thought and humor in small portions, he rises to be one of the only and truly great german poets, e.g. with 'to the mistral'.... more info
The Gay Science 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, and at the same time, a sort of summation of many of Nietzsche's previous and 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.
