Nietzsche for Beginners

I guess this is an okay book to start your Nietzsche education with. It does tend to gloss over or mock his philosophy at times, and there are quite a few illustrations that don't emphasize the point and that won't help you remember, that just seem to be there to fill space. But it does give the basics of his philosophy and the time he lived in. I wouldn't try to substitute this for reading the actual works written by him, but it can't hurt you. Nietzsche is tough reading, and this can only help.

There is so much of Nietzsche that I can't promise a good starting point for any individual. There is hardly any standard which might work for such great complexity. The use of cartoons in this book hardly makes it any less heavy than the textual approach which was philosophy's standard format in the age of print. So many readers have learned what they think they know about Nietzsche from little quotes which are simpler than the contents of the typical page in this book that it is not surprising that some people who try learning from this book are stymied by the complexity presented here. By the time I bought this, I didn't expect it to increase my knowledge of philosophy. My first big surprise was Nietzsche thinking "With Lange I'm Made" on page 22. Lange's HISTORY OF MATERIALISM is not a popular book now, but it had a scope and multiple editions which made its coverage of Charles Darwin and David F. Strauss contemporaneous with Nietzsche's own consideration of the most popular public opinion leaders of his day. The summaries of Lange (1828 - 1875) and Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) on pages 24 & 25 set the context for Nietzsche's thinking on the pretensions of materialism in a world in which "to want is to suffer." The high point of the book for me was the imperialist threat on page 50 and the revolutionary threat on page 52. Those particular problems receive a fair amount of attention in the ensuing discussion of Nietzsche's work, and my recommendation of this book is based mainly on that approach. This philosophy needs these problems to overcome the aversion of the pious.

If you never have read Nietzsche, but are curious, then this is the book for you! Its not a Cliff's Notes, but its a concise comic story of the life and philosophy of Nietzsche. Written by Marc Sautet, this book will give the beginner a tactile version of his work, as well as something which one can have somne adequate and fundamental knowledge of who Nietzsche was. Reccomended for the beginner absolutely!

considering all that one would have to write for a mere summary over the complex thought and theory of nietzsche, i think this book done a great job. i am a student of nietzsche having read several secondary (past masters series, tanner; kaufmann's tome; introducing nietzsche [stay far away from]; etc.) and, as i said, taking into account the book is attempting to sum up the thought of one of the most intelligent and complex theorists of all time--get this then go onto read other sources, THEN read the primary texts