Keith Ansell Pearson

I've previously expressed my admiration for Peter Osborne's How to Read Marx, and let me do so again with respect to this iteration of the rather awesome series. I haven't read more than [On the Genealogy of Morals], and I wanted to get a good intro to Nietzsche before going ahead and reading more of his texts. At the very least, this book will help you get an idea of how much any given person who starts talking about Nietzsche actually knows about him, or something like that; I've managed show more to identify a few rather shoddy references to the "Eternal Return" which, having read this book, were pure fluff. That's why you'd read a book like this, more than anything: to lay the groundwork for your own study of Nietzsche. I'll come back to this review if my own experience with his texts leads me to different conclusions than Ansell Pierson's, but I'll do so to debate with his expertly laid out introduction, not to talk shit about it. It's a good book, and its 120 pages (or so) are worth your time, as they explain how Nietzsche can be read from the present, often against past (mis)interpretations. Now (soon) I'm going to try and complete the planned trilogy of How to Read books I'd set for myself: Marx, Nietzsch, Freud. show less

Some reviewers cite bad editing and translations but don't note that this volume reproduces previously published material from a number of different publishers. If there are errors in translation, those lie with the original translator, editor, and publisher. This Reader contains large sections and sometimes complete excerpts of Nietzsche's most important works, including his 'Birth of Tragedy,' 'Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense,' and 'Utility and Liability of History.' The editors provide show more valuable context for each period of Nietzsche's oft-misused writing, and present the works in chronological order so the reader can see the growing principles of Nietzsche's philosophical positions. I doubt there are many other better choices for an introduction to Nietzsche, and this makes a good companion to the popular Portable Nietzsche. If you want the full works, you have many choices, including some electronic versions available free through Project Gutenberg. show less

The editing in this volume is remarkably poor, as are a few of the translations, but the selection of readings is decent, if a bit heavy on early writings and light on letters. For introduction to Nietzsche's writings, there are better choices.