The Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library)

A collection of several of Nietzsche's writings -- Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Nietzsche Contra Wagner. It also includes several aphorisms and letters of Nietzsche, including the last few letters he sent after his descent into madness. Together, they demonstrate Nietzsche's beautifully worded, life-affirming philosophy.

Walter Kaufmann gives the best translation. This book gives you 3 full translations on Nietzsche books. Twilight of the idols, the Antichrist, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. (TSZ is arguably his best book.) I would also recommend that you pick up "Basic Writings of Nietzsche" that book contains 4 more full translations by Kaufmann. They are The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo. The only three copies that are missing from these two books are Human, All Too Human, The Antichrist, and The Will to Power. ( The Will to Power Nietzsche didn't finish. So it's more about product of his sister who pieced it together.)

Complete translations of selected books are fascinating reads. One wished Kaufmann should have translated all of the books instead of just a handful. One can realize it’s a lot of work but still... Also Sprach Zarathustra is definitely a good read, even if you’re scratching your head, so what? If one can read Pilgrim’s Progress, one can jolly well read Zarathustra. However, The Antichrist is a very provocative anti-Christian screed, half of it agreed, yet the other half, not so much. The translator had pointed out like Birth of the Tragedy, The Antichrist is not a scholarly work. I would personally stick to the facts, not guesswork.

While I'm typically critical of Kaufmann translations, and of these sorts of anthologies in general, this volume is decent--worth having for its sheer convenience. The inclusion of complete versions of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Nietzsche contra Wagner in a single volume is handy indeed, especially considering you'd pay almost as much for any one of these works on its own (although Hollingdale's translations of Twilight and Antichrist, both of which are better--more readable--than Kaufmann's, are packaged together by Penguin: The Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ: or How to Philosophize with a Hammer (Penguin Classics) . Granted, it's no substitute for really, really good translations of these works, like Hollingdale's, most of which are in the Penguin Classics editions (e.g., Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One (Penguin Classics) ). But on the other hand, if you don't read German, it's probably a worthwile practice to read and compare multiple English translations. In that case it's worth noting that, I believe, this is the only place to find Kaufmann's translations of TI, AC, or NCW. For a single volume that provides a suitable introduction to Nietzsche, as well as a few of his complete works, there are few better. In this regard it's really a shame that neither Hollingdale's reader ( A Nietzsche Reader (Penguin Classics) ) nor Keith Ansell Pearson's ( The Nietzsche Reader (Blackwell Readers) ) contains any complete works. See also Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics) for another single volume which contains Kaufmann's complete translations of The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, and Ecce Homo.

Nietzsche glorified life on earth and wanted people to be grateful for all the events one faces, both good and bad, and to learn from them. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the culmination of Nietzsche's idea of man evolving and becoming better men; of releasing from the recurrent cycle of life where emotions lead our actions. He says that God is dead and it is up to men to not look towards outer things to save them, but to look inward and become gods themselves.

Walter Kaufman's translation of Nietzsche's works are quite good. He goes to lengths to explain where other translations of Nietzsche have misused Ubermensch, the difference's between superman/overman, and and he also uses an introductory preface for most of the chapters for convenient referencing. Some of the reviews I read made Nietzsche's work seem intimidating, but reading Zarathustra is not as difficult as i though it would be. Nietzsche's works however, are not light reads, i recommend you devote plenty of time when reading him, re-reading passages twice when you feel you have to if you really want to come away with a firm grip on his thoughts. Zarathustra is the place where i began my reading and i look forward to the other texts in this neat portable collection.

If you're looking to read Nietzsche -- either superficially or deeply -- there are only 2 books you really need: Kaufman's Portable Nietzsche and Kaufman's The Basic Writings of Nietzsche. Of course, you're getting different works from both of these anthologies. If you're looking to read Thus Spake Zarathustra (as well as letters, Twilight of the Idols, the Antichrist, and selections from many of his other works), buy the Portable Nietzsche reader If you're looking to read Beyond Good and Evil and the Geanology of Morals (or the Birth of Tragedy / Ecce Homo, etc.) buy the Basic Writings. Really, you SHOULD own both. One is certainly not a substitute for the other. However, if you're thinking about what to read first.... let me put it like this: Read Thus Spoke Zarathustra first if you're looking for something more laconic and literary (buy Portable Nietzsche) Read Beyond Good and Evil first if you're looking for something more aphoristic and philosophical (buy Basic Writings) All in all, I reference them both about the same.... and once you've worked your way through these you can touch The Will to Power. Good Luck!!! He really was brilliant man. Hopefully you won't be one of the many who have egregiously misunderstood what he was saying.

Make sure if you are buying Nietzsche, you are buying the Walter Kauffmann translations. This is perfect and has lots of explanatory information from him, the world's foremost Nietzsche scholar.