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Books

Nietzsche Studies (II)

Timothy J. Madigan looks at some other books on Nietzsche.

For anyone desiring further knowledge on the life and philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, I highly recommend Lesley Chamberlain’s Nietzsche in Turin: An Intimate Biography. While ostensibly dealing with the last and most productive year of Nietzsche’s life, 1888, a time in which he wrote five impressive books while combating the syphilis which would finally drive him insane, this sensitive book does far more than that. It ranges throughout the life of this tortured genius, helping us come to grips with him as a human, all-too human seeker of truth.

Chamberlain begins her book by stating that it is an attempt to “befriend” this friendless man, a task she ably accomplishes. In particular, as a woman herself, she demolishes the stereotype of Nietzsche as vicious misogynist, and shows that he was a strong defender of women’s education and independence.

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