Free eBooks Thus Spake Zarathustra [with Biographical Introduction] Available To Downloads
"Thus Spake Zarathustra" is the fictional account of the travels and teachings of Zarathustra, known also as Zoraster, the Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism. What Nietzsche is portraying here is a new or different Zarathustra though, one with a morality alternate to that of the traditional. Utilizing a unique and experimental style, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" contains the famous Nietzsche phrase "God is dead" and is one of Nietzsche's classic philosophical works.
File Size: 873 KB
Print Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Digireads.com (March 30, 2004)
Publication Date: March 30, 2004
Language: English
ASIN: B000FC1CD2
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Enabled
Word Wise: Not Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #169,613 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #29 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Good & Evil #65 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Good & Evil #67 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern
There seem to be plenty of reviews debating the philosophical principles of Nietszche and the statements he makes, so, for the non-philosophy students present (i.e. ME) I'll rate it for the layman.`TSZ' is very longwinded, and as the introduction states, filled with `excess', but that does not make it a bad book. Every sentence is imbued with its own iconic poetry, and, philosophy aside, the metaphors and similes alone make this book worth reading. It is clear that Nietszche, or perhaps his translator, had a mind better suited to creative expression than most philosophers, or indeed today's authors, and it is in this that lies the book's real strength. Through its use of imagery it not only makes an interesting, inspirational, conjectural read (apart from a few really boring parts that seemed written only to slow down the pace), it makes its message easy to understand and backs it up with surrealistic examples. Whereas sometimes in philosophy, the use of allegory can confuse the issue (More's `Utopia' - mockery of idealism, framework for perfect society, or rambling tale?), in `Zarathustra' the reader, no matter whether they are new to the field or not, cannot fail to discern the message that Man is not a goal but a bridge, a rope over an abyss. As philosophy, and as literature, it succeeds in conveying its point, setting up a platform for discussion or merely to digest individually. Admittedly, some refuse to read Nietszche because of his view of women (`shallow waters'), and because of how his ideas for the Superman allegedly inspired Hitler's Aryan vision for the world, but such people deprive themselves of an interesting viewpoint that defines the meaning of life in human rather than spiritual terms.One potential problem for the newcomer to philosophy is the storyline.
This is the Thomas Common translation of the text. I was redirected here from the much more widely acclaimed Parkes translation. I don't know if this was a mistake or deliberate subterfuge. But FYI, here is what Wikipedia has to say about the various translations available (this entry accords with common scholarly opinion on the translations):English translations of Zarathustra differ according to the sentiments of each translators. The Thomas Common translation favors a classic English approach, in the style of Shakespeare or the King James Version of the Bible. Common's poetic interpretation of the text, which renders the title Thus Spake Zarathustra, received wide acclaim for its lambent portrayal. Common reasoned that because the original German was written in a pseudo-Luther-Biblical style, a pseudo-King-James-Biblical style would be fitting in the English translation.The Common translation, which improved on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt,[10] remained widely accepted until the more critical translations, titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, separately by R.J. Hollingdale and Walter Kaufmann, which are considered to convey more accurately the German text than the Common version. Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of The Genealogy of Morals to the difference between "bad" and "evil".[10] This and other errors led Kaufmann to wonder whether Common "had little German and less English".
To start off with, the Walter Kaufmann translation is by now well known to be probably the authoritative edition of Zarathustra (although the excerpts I've read from the Del Caro Cambridge Texts edition seems to be perhaps a more beautiful style). One of the reasons I originally picked up this edition was because the only translations available over the web were the droning and pedantic Thomas Common versions which are not only dull but muddled. Walter Kaufmann's translation gives a degree of clarity that far surpasses the Common translation, cannot speak to all the differences (however large or small) between it and the Del Caro version.The book isn't particularly long, but Nietzsche fills it with metaphors and parables in addition to simple narrative and merriment. This is one of the challenges of the book: you're forced to figure out what is meaningful from what isn't and on top of that what each metaphor means. Nietzsche has never been in the habit of going into intricate detail or clarifying what he's saying to the same degree as some other thinkers, and although the book is a stylistic masterpiece (with narrative deliberately done in a biblical style and herein lies one of the advantages over the Common translation, namely that Common translated everything to mimic the King James version with an overabundance of "thees" "thous" and "ests") the philosophy is at times difficult to comprehend. Again, it's not difficult in the sense that the Critique of Pure Reason is difficult, or at least not nearly to the same degree, it is difficult because it is at times cryptic.Additionally, I've seen a lot of reviews suggesting reading Nietzsche just for the pithy phrases or the beauty of the work.
Thus Spake Zarathustra: Thus Spoke Zarathustra Thus Spake Zarathustra [with Biographical Introduction] THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA OP 30 ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA SYMPHONIC POEM STUDY SCORE (Edition Eulenburg) Thus Spake Zarathustra (Dover Thrift Editions) In Love with Life: Reflections on Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and Nobody (Oxford World's Classics) Thus Spoke Zarathustra (A Thrifty Book): A Book for All and None Zoroastrian Tradition: An Introduction to the Ancient Wisdom of Zarathustra Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: A Biographical Introduction (5th Edition) Macbeth [with Biographical Introduction] The Republic [with Biographical Introduction] Solo así: Por una agenda ciudadana / Only Thus: Towards an Independent Civic Agenda (Spanish Edition) Tone Poems in Full Score, Series II: Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben (Dover Music Scores) NIETZSCHE COMPLETE WORKS COLLECTION 20+ BOOKS and BIOGRAPHY - Including Zarathustra, Wagner, Twilight, Gay Science, Morals, Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil, Birth of Tragedy, Ecce Homo In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World's First Prophet In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World's First Prophet (Vintage Departures) Zarathustra: Myth - Message - History The Martin Duberman Reader: The Essential Historical, Biographical, and Autobiographical Writings The Jesuit Missionaries to North America: Spiritual Writings and Biographical Sketches
