FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
BY
GEORGE BRANDES
AUTHOR OF "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," ETC.
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1914
Sculptor: J. Davidson. — Photo: A. Langdon Coburn.
CONTENTS
| I. | AN ESSAY ON ARISTOCRATIC RADICALISM | |
| II. | (DECEMBER 1899) CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE AND GEORGE BRANDES | |
| III. | (AUGUST 1900) | |
| IV. | (1909) |
I
AN ESSAY ON ARISTOCRATIC RADICALISM[1]
(1889)
Friedrich Nietzsche appears to me the most interesting writer in Germanliterature at the present time. Though little known even in his owncountry, he is a thinker of a high order, who fully deserves to bestudied, discussed, contested and mastered. Among many good qualitieshe has that of imparting his mood to others and setting their thoughtsin motion.
During a period of eighteen years Nietzsche has written a long seriesof books and pamphlets. Most of these volumes consist of aphorisms,and of these the greater part, as well as the more original, areconcerned with moral prejudices. In this province will be found hislasting importance. But besides this he has dealt with the most variedproblems; he has written on culture and history, on art and women,on companionship and solitude, on the State and society, on life'sstruggle and death.
He was born on October 15, 1844; studied philology; became in 1869professor of philology at Basle; made the acquaintance of RichardWagner and became warmly attached to him, and associated also withthe distinguished historian of the Renaissance, Jakob Burkhardt.Nietzsche's admiration and affection for Burkhardt were lasting. Hisfeeling for Wagner, on the other hand, underwent a complete revulsionin the course of years. From having been Wagner's prophet he developedinto his most passionate opponent.
Nietzsche was always heart and soul a musician; he even tried hishand as a composer in his Hymn to Life (for chorus and orchestra,1888), and his intercourse with Wagner left deep traces in his earliestwritings. But the opera of Parsifal, with its tendency to Catholicismand its advancement of the ascetic ideals which had previously beenentirely foreign to Wagner, caused Nietzsche to see in the greatcomposer a danger, an enemy, a morbid phenomenon, since this last workshowed him all the earlier operas in a new light.
During his residen