![]() ![]() Prideaux is intent on telling the story of Nietzsche life as a human being, with all the emotional attachments, reactions to specific events, and so on that such an approach entails. The difference between Prideaux's and Kaufmann's biography is clear, even after only a couple of chapters. The loss of Friedrich's father, the bond that he had with his sister, his going off to a Spartan-like school for talented and mostly fatherless boys-Prideaux tells the story well, using many examples of Nietzsche's own precocious writing to add color to her account. She begins with Nietzsche's own account of meeting Wagner-one of the major events and biggest influences in his life-and then trails back to his early childhood. Nietzsche's life as Prideaux tells it is captivating. ![]() I read two chapters of I Am Dynamite! before I really could no longer avoid sleeping. Public interest is strong, and academic scholarship voluminous. It is in no small part thanks to Kaufmann that today, Nietzsche needs no apostle. First published in 1950, Kaufmann's Nietzsche, as well as his other scholarship, did much to change-that is, to rectify-the then-popular image of Nietzsche as a Nazi philosopher, and more generally to increase interest (especially in the United States) in the largely misunderstood German philosopher. There have been a number of studies of Nietzsche's life and thought-most notably and originally, Walter Kaufmann's brilliant Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Prideaux's biography of Nietzsche is hardly the first of its kind. ![]()
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