The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

by H. L. Mencken

X. "The Joyful Wisdom," translated by Thomas Common, author of "Nietzsche as Critic, Philosopher, Poet and Prophet" (including "Songs of Prince Free-as-a-Bird," translated by Paul V. Cohn and Maude D. Petre).

XI. "Thus Spake Zarathustra," translated by Thomas Common, with an introduction by Frau Förster-Nietzsche and explanatory notes by A. M. Ludovici.

XII. "Beyond Good and Evil," translated by Helen Zimmern, with an introduction by Thomas Common.

XIII. "The Genealogy of Morals," translated by Horace B. Samuel, M. A., and "People and Countries," translated by J. M. Kennedy, with an editor's note by Dr. Levy.

XIV. "The Will to Power," I, translated by A. M. Ludovici, with a preface by the translator.

XV. "The Will to Power," II, translated by A. M. Ludovici, with a preface by the translator.

XVI. "The Twilight of the Idols" (including "The Antichrist," "Eternal Recurrence" and explanatory notes to "Thus Spake Zarathustra"), translated by A. M. Ludovici, with a preface by the translator.

XVII. "Ecce Homo," translated by A. M. Ludovici; various songs, epigrams and dithyrambs, translated by Paul V. Cohn, Herman Scheffauer, Francis Bickley and Dr. G. T. Wrench; and the music of Nietzsche's "Hymn to Life" (words by Lou Salomé), with an introduction by Mr. Ludovici, a note to the poetry by Dr. Levy, and a reproduction of Karl Donndorf's bust of Nietzsche.

XVIII. Index.

The student who would read Nietzsche had better begin with one of the aphoristic books, preferably "The Dawn of Day." From that let him proceed to "Beyond Good and Evil," "The Genealogy of Morals" and "The Antichrist." He will then be ready to understand "Thus Spake Zarathustra." Later on he may read "Ecce Homo" and dip into "The Joyful Wisdom," "Human All-Too Human" and "The Will to Power," as his fancy suggests. The Wagner pamphlets are of more importance to Wagnerians than to students of Nietzsche's ideas, and the early philological and critical essays have lost much of their interest by the passage of time. Nietzsche's poetry had better be avoided by all who cannot read it in the original German. The English translations are mostly very free and seldom satisfactory.