Thus Spoke Zarathustra

THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA

F
RIEDRICH
N
IETZSCHE
was born near Leipzig in 1844, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. He attended the famous Pforta School, then went to university at Bonn and at Leipzig, where he studied philology and read Schopenhauer. When he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basle University; he stayed there until his health forced him into retirement in 1879. While at Basle he made and broke his friendship with Wagner, participated as an ambulance orderly in the Franco-Prussian War, and published
The Birth of Tragedy
(1872),
Untimely Meditations
(1873–6) and the first part of
Human, All Too Human
(1878; two supplements entitled
Assorted Opinions and Maxims
and
The Wanderer and his Shadow
followed in 1879 and 1880 respectively). From 1880 until his final collapse in 1889, except for brief interludes, he divorced himself from everyday life and, supported by his university pension, he lived mainly in France, Italy and Switzerland.
The Dawn
appeared in 1881 followed by
The Gay Science
in the autumn of 1882.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
was written between 1883 and 1885, and his last completed books were
Ecce Homo
, an autobiography, and
Nietzsche contra Wagner
. He became insane in 1889 and remained in a condition of mental and physical paralysis until his death in 1900.

R. J. H
OLLINGDALE
translated eleven of Nietzsche’ books and published two books about him; he also translated works by, among others, Schopenhauer, Goethe, E. T. A. Hoffman, Lichtenberg and Theodor Fontane, many of these for Penguin Classics. He was the honorary president of the British Nietzsche Society. R. J. Hollingdale died on 28 September 2001. In its obituary
The Times
described him as ‘Britain’s foremost postwar Nietzsche specialist’ and the
Guardian
paid tribute to his ‘inspired gift for German translation’. Richard Gott wrote that he ‘brought fresh generations – through fluent and intelligent translation – to read and relish Nietzsche’s inestimable thought’.

NIETZSCHE

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

A BOOK FOR EVERYONE
AND NO ONE

TRANSLATED

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

R. J. Hollingdale

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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This translation first published 1961
Reprinted with new Introduction 1969
Reprinted with new Chronology and Further Reading 2003
46

Copyright © R. J. Hollingdale, 1961, 1969
All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’ prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

9780141904320

CONTENTS

CHRONOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

FURTHER READING

Part One

ZARATHUSTRA’S PROLOGUE

ZARATHUSTRA’S DISCOURSES

Of the Three Metamorphoses

Of the Chairs of Virtue

Of the Afterworldsmen

Of the Despisers of the Body

Of Joys and Passions

Of the Pale Criminal

Of Reading and Writing

Of the Tree on the Mountainside

Of the Preachers of Death

Of War and Warriors

Of the New Idol

Of the Flies of the Market-Place

Of Chastity

Of the Friend

Of the Thousand and One Goals

Of Lave of One’s Neighbour

Of the Way of the Creator

Of Old and Young Women

Of the Adder’ Bite

Of Marriage and Children

Of Voluntary Death

Of the Bestowing Virtue

Part Two

The Child with the Mirror

On the Blissful Islands

Of the Compassionate

Of the Priests

Of the Virtuous

Of the Rabble

Of the Tarantulas

Of the Famous Philosophers

The Night Song

The Dark Song

The Funeral Song

Of Self-Overcoming

Of the Sublime Men

Of the Land of Culture

Of Immaculate Perception

Of Scholars

Of Poets

Of Great Events

The Prophet

Of Redemption

Of Manly Prudence

The Stillest Hour

Part Three

The Wanderer

Of the Vision and the Riddle

Of Involuntary Bliss

Before Sunrise

Of the Virtue that Makes Small

On the Mount of Olives

Of Passing By

Of the Apostates

The Home-Coming

Of the Three Evil Things

Of the Spirit of Gravity

Of Old and New Law – Tables

The Convalescent

Of the Great Longing

The Second Dance Song

The Seven Seals (or: The Song of Yes and Amen)

Part Four

The Honey Offering

The Cry of Distress

Conversation with the Kings

The Leech

The Sorcerer

Retired from Service

The Ugliest Man

The Voluntary Beggar

The Shadow

At Noontide

The Greeting

The Last Supper

Of the Higher Man

The Song of Melancholy

Of Science

Among the Daughters of the Desert

The Awakening

The Ass Festival

The Intoxicated Song

The Sign

NOTES

CHRONOLOGY