The Birth of Tragedy

Found this most useful for my A2 English Literature coursework on tragedy. Though I was studying post-war tragedy on e.g. The Great Gatsby and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, it was most helpful to look back at the classical and original theories and ideas concerning tragedy. The Birth of Tragedy would not be considered as one of Nietzsche's best, as it is very biased and very informal, however, that is what makes the book perfect for coursework, enabling students to put it down to discussion, debate or show the examiner that you have your own personal opinion (by agreeing or disagreeing with Nietzsche's view)

Great introduction of almost perfect length and depth. The notes are extremely useful as Nietzsche references a lot of works and books most people have not read. A good starting point for reading Nietzsche as it's one of his first and most accessible works - which cant be said for most of his other works. Nietzsche makes a valuable statement of the importance of art as metaphysical consolation, where Attic tragedy is the highest achievement of art with it's ''perfect'' mixture of the Apollonian and Dionysian attributes. The arguements for this are extremely unconventional for a philosopher, but entertaining and passionate nonetheless.

fast delivery bought this edition as it was on offer.Do note that the book has very small print

Good book. Thank you

An excellent modern translation of Nietzsche's first book. The translator supplies a very useful contextual essay and helpful notes. 'The Birth of Tragedy' is an unusual book: a work of scholarship that is impatient with scholarship, a polemic about the German present that has deep roots in antiquity. Nietzsche later convicted himself of youthful naivety in this early work, but even he could not deny its energy and impatience. The result is a short but dense and ramifying work that opens a new chapter in cultural criticism and has been profoundly influential, not least on Continental Philosophy in our own time. I greatly enjoyed my first encounter with this book, some years ago. Readers new to Nietzsche are advised to be prepared to take it slowly and use the scholarly apparatus. As Douglas Smith points out in his Introduction, the later Nietzsche may have distanced himself from its tone and emphases, but its place in the development of his thought is clear and the continuities between this and his later preoccupations is clear. Introduction (xxx pages), text (131 pages), Explanatory Notes (31 pages), Index.

Sentences like broken glass. Sad to read such a stuttered translation. Penguin Modern Classic (from the early 1990s) much more beautiful and memorable.

My first encounter with Friedrich Nietzsche was as a 16-year-old trainee in the field of telecommunications. I worked with a fellow trainee who, though being younger than me, was as erudite exponent of Nietzsche’s philosophy - or, at least, he was to my ears. Our conversations were usually about religion. I cannot recall that my fellow trainee ever mentioned Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy” by name, but, after my reading of this book, I feel sure that he was, at least familiar, with some of the material in it. Whether my fellow trainee possessed a familiarity with the music of Richard Wagner that was anything near to that of Nietzsche is debateable. Richard Wagner is a composer for whose music I have developed a substantial listening appetite and appreciation. For Nietzsche, at least early in his writing career, Wagner was greatly admired. Nietzsche viewed Wagner’s music as an integral part of German culture at the end of the 19th century, perhaps the key to an intrinsic understanding and appreciation of this culture. Wagner’s music, rooted in a belief that music should be literate and dramatic, expressed what Nietzsche believed should be the shape of the culture of a modern Germany. That culture is expressed as a balance between an insight into “the chaos and suffering that underlies all human existence” (what Nietzsche called “Dionysian”), and “the discipline and clarity of rational thought formation” (what Nietzsche called the “Apollonian”). Both ideas have their origins in the culture of ancient Greece. The foregoing was both a critique of German culture and an expressed desire for a return to a culture that had been lost. In the process of his critical concern and hopeful re-emergence of this culture, Nietzsche discusses aspects of the nature of art, science, and religion. Each of these subjects is problematic by nature, and discussion of them in a book the size of this edition of Oxford World Classics cannot be expected to be entirely fulsome. However, as with my former discussion with a fellow trainee technician. it is an important launch pad for further exploration of Nietzsche’s ideas about philosophy, particularly with respect to the narrative style of “The Birth of Tragedy" that presents "a series of intertwined beginnings and endings”. It has been well-described as a “complex but compelling book”. The book itself is physically handy-sized, is well set-out in chapters and chapter titles, with an easy-to-read print size. Of note in the production of the book is the fact that, following a most informative introduction and a note on the book’s translation, there appears a Select Bibliography - something that usually appears at the end of a book. Its appearance at the beginning is novel and helpful. The book “The Birth of Tragedy”, by Friedrich Nietzsche, is suitably priced, attractively presented in this Oxford World Classics edition, and is highly recommended.

Reader beware. She is short, but you will want to reread the pages many times. A lot of clever ideas. Nietzsche is a clumsy, unorganized writer. Many of his presuppositions are historically iffy, even for the time, but you prob know that already. There are times where you worry he is only persuasive because of his rhetoric and conviction, but then you think about what he says and go, "yeah I guess that's pretty neat", even if it's a clumsy or unrealistic. As an artist I've been thinking a whole lot about my work and the evolution of my work. I think this should be standard reading for artists of any kind, even though it particularly mentions music a lot. This book is easier to read as a non-academic than Beyond Good and Evil. However, it will help to have some knowledge of the greeks, and a brief history of Greek philosophy. Footnotes (at the back of the book) are very very helpful and makes this edition stand out to me. My copy of Beyond Good and Evil didn't have very good footnotes.

Heavy and specialized. Beautiful writing and admirable translation. His views make sense in today's dramatic nadir.

As described!

A lifelong resource.