The Birth of Tragedy: Out of the Spirit of Music

by Friedrich Nietzsche, Michael Tanner (Editor), Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

Overview

Nietzsche's first published book, The Birth of Tragedy is a compelling argument for the necessity of art in life

This landmark work of criticism is fuelled by Nietzsche's enthusiasms for Greek tragedy, the philosophy of Schopenhauer and the music of Wagner, to whom the book was dedicated. Nietzsche outlined a distinction between two central forces in art: the Apolline, representing beauty and order, and the Dionysiac, a primal or ecstatic reaction to the sublime. He believed the combination of these states produced the highest forms of music and tragic drama, which not only reveal the truth about suffering in life, but also provide a consolation for it. Impassioned and exhilarating in its conviction, The Birth of Tragedy has become a key text in European culture.

Translated by Shaun Whiteside
Edited by Michael Tanner

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141935072
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	11/27/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	942,901
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was born near Leipzig in 1844. When he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel University. Works published in the 1880s include The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist. In January 1889, Nietzsche collapsed on a street in Turin and was subsequently institutionalized, spending the rest of his life in a condition of mental and physical paralysis. Works published after his death in 1900 include Will to Power, based on his notebooks, and Ecce Homo, his autobiography.

Table of Contents

The Birth of Tragedy - Friedrich Nietzsche Introduction
Further Reading

The Birth of Tragedy:
Attempt at a Self-Criticism
Preface to Richard Wagner
The Birth of Tragedy
Notes