金石堂
八字鬍、總是生氣、天才過人哲學家、發狂致死的偏執狂……除此之外，尼采是誰？
談到哲學，少不了要談到尼采，他提出的「超人」、「權力意志」及「論道德 系譜學」在在都為我們對人類的理解帶來煥然一新的觀念。然而，真的談到尼采，除了他的招牌鬍鬚、滿臉怒容、虛無主義和法西斯主義，我們又了解多少？為什麼像卡繆、蘭德、馬丁.布伯及希特勒等名流青史的人物，都將尼采的學說是為圭臬？
尼采出生於虔誠的基督教家庭，受父親猝逝的陰影所籠罩，曾以教書為職業，獨自一人在高山上思索哲學，最後偏執進而發狂……Sue Prideaux在本傳記中以小說家特有的感性，為大家揭露這位聰明絕頂、極不善於社交且生活滿是波折的偉大思想家尼采不凡的一生，道出人們是如何裁斷、評價他的生活與學說。
此外，Sue Prideaux亦描寫出幾位對尼采影響深遠的人們，包含Richard、Cosima Wagner、讓他心碎的Lou Salomé及他的妹妹Elizabeth，而Sue Prideaux也寫下那些國家主義下反猶太人的德國人是如何將尼采的學說扭曲成納粹主義。（文/博客來編譯）
NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice
A groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will to power, slave morality—have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the human condition. But what do most people really know of Nietzsche—beyond the mustache, the scowl, and the lingering association with nihilism and fascism? Where do we place a thinker who was equally beloved by Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Martin Buber, and Adolf Hitler?
Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing—overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father—through his teaching career, lonely philosophizing on high mountains, and heart-breaking descent into madness, Prideaux documents Nietzsche’s intellectual and emotional life with a novelist’s insight and sensitivity.
She also produces unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé, the femme fatale who broke his heart; and his sister Elizabeth, a rabid German nationalist and anti-Semite who manipulated his texts and turned the Nietzsche archive into a destination for Nazi ideologues.
I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history’s most misunderstood philosopher.
Review
This is what every biography should be like - engrossing, intelligent, moving, often downright funny, and filled with insights and sharply observed details from an extraordinary life. Simply a blast. (Sarah Bakewell)
An exemplary biography. . . . Nietzsche steps out of the mists of obfuscation and rumor, vividly evoked. . . . An attentive, scrupulous portrait. —Parul Seghal, The New York Times
A strikingly original portrait of Nietzsche and beautifully written. (Antony Beevor)
Dense, complex and hilarious, which is a rare and winning combination ... I Am Dynamite! is a wonderful book and I say that having almost certainly misunderstood quite a lot of it. I shall read it again, more than once ... It is just such a blast to read. Witty, terribly clever and steeped in the wild, doomed peculiarities of 19th-century Germania, it is a tremendous and reformative biography of a man whom popular history has perhaps done a disservice. (Hugo Rifkind The Times)
An outstanding biography impressive in the depth and breadth of its knowledge. Her Strindberg deservedly won the Duff Cooper prize, and I Am Dynamite! (which takes its title from Nietzsche’s boast in his autobiography Ecce Homo) is of comparable stature. (John Carey The Sunday Times)
Is there room for yet another biography? Sue Prideaux’s wonderfully readable book suggests that there is . Prideaux is able to offer us a valuable new perspective, one in which he emerges as a unique and endlessly fascinating person, but nevertheless a person to whom we can relate . It has taken a while, but Nietzsche’s reputation as a philosopher has been fully restored. The story of his life is by turns inspiring, poignant and dispiriting, and it has never been better told than in this riveting book. (Ray Monk New Statesman)
Excellently researched and compulsively readable ... There are essentially two sorts of biographies. Some try to fit the Great Person into the larger world of their era; others try to bring them alive as a timeless human being. Prideaux’s book is very firmly in the second category, packed with insights into the man who ecstatically prophesied the Übermensch (and we’re not talking a thoughtful minicab driver) from his desk . This is not just a deeply enjoyable and enlightening book. It’s also an all-too-timely one.’ (James Hawes Spectator)
A splendid biography ... beautifully written, and often intensely moving, account of a life devoted to the achievement of intellectual greatness and the exploration of the conditions for its flourishing. (Jonathan Derbyshire Financial Times)
Prideaux writes in unmannered, fairly caustic prose, with a talent for the well-timed digression. Her sentences are sprightly, her chapters short, and the characters, major and minor, painted in broad brushstrokes . The narrative has the energy of a James Bond movie. (Nakul Krishna Daily Telegraph)
Exemplary ... Nietzsche steps out of the mists of obfuscation and rumor, vividly evoked ... Prideaux relies on the mapmaker’s method of triangulation, using time not place as the fixed point and drawing her subject into focus by examining the events in his life, his personal writing and his published work ... What is illuminated here owes as much to Prideaux’s sensibility as her approach ... A specialist in the lives of histrionic male geniuses of the 19th century ... As this attentive, scrupulous portrait makes clear, there may be even greater pleasures - to say nothing of justice - in being found. (New York Times)
[Prideaux] is a dogged, amiable guide and leaves you in no doubt whatsoever that her frail, footloose, ill-tempered subject was one of the most extraordinary people who ever lived. (Leo Robson Evening Standard)
