Beyond Good and Evil (Penguin Classics)

Friedrich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" has been translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale and features an introduction by Michael Tanner, published in the Penguin Classics series. This work cemented Nietzsche's status as the preeminent European philosopher of his era, dramatically rejecting the traditional Western notions of truth, God, good, and evil. With wit and vigor, Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a "slave morality." He then turns to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual impose their own "will to power" upon the world.

This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator, as well as an introduction by Michael Tanner, which helps to elucidate some of the more abstract passages in "Beyond Good and Evil." Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) held the chair of classical philology at Basel University from a young age of 24, until his deteriorating health forced him to retire in 1879. He then withdrew from society until his final collapse in 1899, when he succumbed to insanity.

Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable. His powerfully original thinking has left an indelible mark on the intellectual landscape. For those who have enjoyed "Beyond Good and Evil," Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is also available in the Penguin Classics series, and is described by Michael Tanner as "one of the greatest books of a very great thinker."

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