Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season252 pages, about 5 hours: four-fifths the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbZarathustra descends from ten years alone in the mountains to preach in a marketplace.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, none credit the plot and 9 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne reading guide places On the Genealogy of Morals, on the shelf at 378 pages, before this book in a suggested Nietzsche reading order.
The case for it
on the biblical form
“They are decidedly oriental in form and recall the manner and phraseology of the biblical rhapsodists. Toward the end Nietzsche throws all restraint to the winds and indulges to his heart’s content in the rare and exhilarating sport of blasphemy.”
H.L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908 on the novel format
“I particularly liked the format of a ‘novel’ and the idea of creating new values.”
a book blog on its taunt
“In the end I am glad I did, if only to exorcise that taunt.”
a book blog on the wise teller
“I appreciated an interaction Zarathustra has with a ‘wise’ teller”
a Substack review
The case against
on the lines on women
“rampant misogyny to be found in these pages is more or less by the way”
a book blog on the prose
“it is such a complex, paradoxical and gnomic book”
Clancy Martin · Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2008 on the allegorical style
“the allegorical way of writing was a bit difficult at times”
a Substack review on the eternal return
“This is one of the most puzzling features of this book”
a Substack review
