1 comments about Hans-Georg Gadamer: A Biography (Yale Studies in Hermeneutics).

1. The author of this thick biography, Jean Grondin, has always been one of the most astute and informed commentators on the subject of philosophical hermeneutics.

   Prospective readers need not be put off by this volume's bulk (478 pages) since almost 140 pages are devoted to scholarly apparatus which most of us will ignore. That leaves only 338 pages of actual text to read (plus a few pages of pictures to enjoy). In this era of bloated biographies, we can be thankful for Professor Grondin's restraint. The average intelligent reader will probably find herself skimming chapters 2 - 5 (Gadamer's ancestry and youth) and chapters 10 - 12 (academic politics in the mid-twentieth century) thereby shortening this book by an additional 115 pages. That leaves about 200 pages of interesting reading about Gadamer, Heidegger, Nazis, poets, Habermas, Derrida, Plato, phenomenology, human finitude, etc.

   Not surprisingly, Professor Grondin does a fine job of sorting out the influences of others in the formation of Gadamer's conception of hermeneutics and in communicating the gist of his major work, TRUTH AND METHOD. Unfortunately, Grondin never gets around to telling us much about his subject's life-long enthusiasm for the arts (Why did Gadamer love Rilke's poetry? What visual artists was Gadamer excited about?).

   In short, this is a good biography of an important twentieth century philosopher, but not a great one (for a great one order Ray Monk's WITTGENSTEIN : THE DUTY OF GENIUS).

3 comments about The Thought and Character of William James (Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy).

1. Perry's text is the original, definitive expression of William James' philosophy, outside of the writings of James -- a founder father of the philosophical genre of pragmatism, contemporary American social thought and modern psychology -- himself. Despite the multitude of books written on and about James and his ideas since, no serious student of William James should be without or ignore this one. It is the Genesis-text, as it were, of Jamesean studies.

   Perry organizes and effectively analyzes the whole array of James' diverse writings (including reprints of some tremendous and now otherwise difficult to find selections), enabling any reader to obtain a comprehensive and detailed understanding of James' philosophy. At the same time, Perry infects his analysis with a solid and enduring illustration of James's personality, without ever becoming either trite or merely philosophical biography.

   Perry's own skills as a writer are evident in such passages as the following, which is a most memorable description of the breadth and depth of Jame's character: "[James] called himself empiricist, pluralist, pragmatist, individualist, but whenever he did so he began at once to hanker after the fleshpots of rationalism, monism, intellectualism, socialist. He liked body in his philosophizing, and he hated to leave out anything that had either flavor or nutritive value. He was much more afraid of thinness than he was of inconsistency."

   In one or two places, the serious James scholar might have a difference of opinion with Perry's analysis, whether historical or philosophical, but all philosophy texts are susceptible to such criticism, and Perry's is less susceptible than most. Indeed, it will be by treating Perry's text as a sound starting place that the inexperienced or unfamiliar reader might become such an adept analyst and capable of interpreting James' life, character and thought so well.




2. Perry's text is the original, definitive expression of William James' philosophy, outside of the writings of James -- a founder father of the philosophical genre of pragmatism, contemporary American social thought and modern psychology -- himself. Despite the multitude of books written on and about James and his ideas since, no serious student of William James should be without or ignore this one. It is the Genesis-text, as it were, of Jamesean studies.

   Perry organizes and effectively analyzes the whole array of James' diverse writings (including reprints of some tremendous and now otherwise difficult to find selections), enabling any reader to obtain a comprehensive and detailed understanding of James' philosophy. At the same time, Perry infects his analysis with a solid and enduring illustration of James's personality, without ever becoming either trite or merely philosophical biography.

   Perry's own skills as a writer are evident in such passages as the following, which is a most memorable description of the breadth and depth of Jame's character: "[James] called himself empiricist, pluralist, pragmatist, individualist, but whenever he did so he began at once to hanker after the fleshpots of rationalism, monism, intellectualism, socialist. He liked body in his philosophizing, and he hated to leave out anything that had either flavor or nutritive value. He was much more afraid of thinness than he was of inconsistency."

   In one or two places, the serious James scholar might have a difference of opinion with Perry's analysis, whether historical or philosophical, but all philosophy texts are susceptible to such criticism, and Perry's is less susceptible than most. Indeed, it will be by treating Perry's text as a sound starting place that the inexperienced or unfamiliar reader might become such an adept analyst and capable of interpreting James' life, character and thought so well.




3. William James was as incongruent as his philosophy; and I don't mean this sardonically. He was a lover both of art and science; both of the unity of the whole and the plurality of parts; both of the rationalistic and the sentimental parts of life. It is always suprising to me not that he could be all these things, but how well he balanced them all. Whenever one trait would come to the forefront, James almost instinctively checked it with an equal and opposite impulse.

   This book gives us a front-row seat to watch James's balancing act up close! By my estimates, a little over half of this book's text is letters either from or to James (by frinecs such as Perice, Holmes, Dewey, Bergson, and his brother Henry). The author does a good job weaving these letters together with biographical infromation; with this mixture, he does two things. He puts James's life in the context of his philosophy (philosophies?) and puts his philosophy(-ies)in the context of his life. The best part, to me, was the author's ability to discouse on each book James wrote integrating its philosophy with the events of James's world at the time.

   As with most biographies, this one does have a tendency (too much so in my opiinion) to psychologize in ways that, to me, seem stretching. The last two chapters, for instance, on James's "Morbid Traits" and his "Benign Traits" are like a psychological summary of James, often identifying traits James posessed as ones that are hinted at in his works (particularly the Varieties of Religous Experience). While sections like these can be interesting, they can also (as these two are) become overkill. I read the rest of the book (which psychologizes but keeps it to a minimum) and skimmed these two chapters.

   Otherwise, this s a great biography. Not so intellectual as to be inaccessable to general readers, but not to watered down that we don't both learn new things about James and the philosophic landscape on every page. To put it strangely, to me, James is like a great jazz ballad - the more you come into contact with its intricacies, the more you grow to cherish it. And, I suppose that James is like jazz - emphasizing the individuality of the parts rather than a pre-determined whole. And like a good jazz tune, James's philosophy was never finished - always open ended.

   So go read the book already.

5 comments about Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century.

1. Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century is undoubtedly one of the best collections of biographies I have read in years. In an era where celebrities are designated "heroes" and fifty or so men in New Orleans are called "Saints", it is refreshing - no it's inspiring - to read about five men and a woman whose attitudes and actions had a profound and positive effect on this century. David Aikman, a talented foreign correspondent for Time Magazine turned writer, has done a superb job capturing, in a few pages, the extraordinary lives and accomplishments of Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela. If you are looking for perfect people, you won't find them in Aikman's book. What you will find, however, are six individuals who again and again, rose above their times and circumstances to change, if only for a brief time, the course of human events. Aikman's astute observations into the worldly and spiritual lives of these great souls hold important lessons for all of us today. Mother Teresa's inexhaustible compassion for the poorest of the poor, Nelson Mandela's amazing capacity to forgive, Billy Graham's urgent quest for salvation for the human soul, Solzhenitsyn's implacable pursuit of the truth, Pope John Paul's passion for human dignity and Eli Wiesel's constant reminders of the profound wickedness that lurks in the hearts of men, these are some of the lessons in store for those who read this enjoyable and inspirational book. Perhaps the best chapter is the last. Here Aikman uses Eli Wiesel's compelling and tragic story to inquire into the nature of evil. Was Adolph Hitler a charismatic but misguided despot or Satan incarnate? Was the Holocaust "a mutation on a cosmic scale" or "merely the natural shoots watered by Europe's longtime subterranean lake of anti-Semitism"? As we move from this millennium to the next, hopefully the brilliant lights of these great souls will illuminate the answers to these questions and be a lamp unto the uncertain path that lies before us.

   rlrodriguez@ucdavis.edu




2. I really want to thank Mr. Aikman for this book. It illustrates the way a pure soul can be used by God to accomplish things beyond anyone's expectations. The author masterfully weaves anecdotes, interviews and biographical information to connect us in a unique way to these great people. I came away inspired to try and carry away remnants of each of these wonderful people. Thank you for such a masterful work. It is profound in so many ways.



3. I really want to thank Mr. Aikman for this book. It illustrates the way a pure soul can be used by God to accomplish things beyond anyone's expectations. The author masterfully weaves anecdotes, interviews and biographical information to connect us in a unique way to these great people. I came away inspired to try and carry away remnants of each of these wonderful people. Thank you for such a masterful work. It is profound in so many ways.



4. What a wonderful book! I have the privilege of knowing the author, and I can say that Dr. Aikman has not only unveiled six great souls for our benefit, but has exposed the greatness of his own.



5. It was truly wonderful to read David's biographies of these great souls. There is quite a warts-and-all documentary style to this, but I really felt that I got into the lives of the people. For instance, I felt like I got a better picture of Billy Graham from the one chapter on him here than I did from the whole of Graham's autobiography.

   Full disclosure: I know David a little, we go to church together. But it's STILL a great book. I hope you can still find it around.

No comments about There Is a River.

2 comments about Rue Ordener, Rue Labat (Stages).

1. This is a slim volume from a French philosopher writing of her childhood as a Jew in France during World War II. She writes from the perspective of an adult who clearly still is ill-at-ease with her history, specifically her choosing of a Christian woman who help hide her over her mother; her violation of Jewish law taught her by her rabbi father. This volume does not speak to common experience, not even French Jewish experience; rather it is the experience of Sarah Kofman as seen in retrospect. What is most evident is the lack of resolution regarding her past - the reader appreciates the difficulty with which she apparently tells her story.



2. I am aware of many authors who died voluntarily. The hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Nietzsche's birth on October 15, 1994, will have special significance for me as being the date of Sarah Kofman's death. Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, an autobiographical account of her childhood, was written shortly before Sarah Kofman was sixty years old. It is easy for me to be impressed by Sarah Kofman because she was a woman who seemed to be interested in the same kind of gag reflex humor that appeals to me.
   
   Certain social situations demand silence about certain things. When the Republicans were coming to Saint Paul (an attempt to put lipstick on a pig's eye) for their convention, I realized that the police in Saint Paul would not want them to hear me shouting my opinions about tax cuts, war, and a ten trillion dollar national debt which is rolling in money in the wrong direction. I split, left town, and tried to crack myself up from a distance. Now that I'm back, and Sarah Palin has become the ideal joke vehicle for the things that Republicans enjoy mocking (like WHY IS THIS MAN LAUGHING? Nixon running for Vice President with Ike in 1952), it is easier for me to be open about Sarah Kofman being the hot white chick philosophy expert in Freud and Nietzsche for France during my lifetime, because she had the kind of familiarity with ultimate issues that World War II made an impression on Jews in Europe that will never quit.
   
   The gag reflex is the ultimate contrast to the kind of piffle that praise for an old goat with America first policies is standing for as the national debt jumps from ten trillion dollars to twelve trillion dollars in the immediate future. Sarah Kofman could be nasty by telling how Rabbi Bereck Kofman was beaten to death in Aushwitz because, instead of working, he wanted to spend the Sabboth praying for everyone on all sides. Religion is a hell of a context in that kind of world, and old goats don't make it much better.

1 comments about St. Martin: The French Mystic.

1. Waite traces the lineage of St. Martin from his youth to his traditional religious life and conversion to mysticism and how his order was started and influenced Rosicrucians in America. Martinism is now growing very fast and with the Internet many new orders have started worldwide. This biography lends substance and structure to understanding its popularity today!

No comments about Two Roads to Ignorance: A Quasi Biography.

2 comments about Diogenes of Sinope: The Man in the Tub (Contributions in Philosophy).

1. I thoroughly recommend Diogenes of Sinope as essential reading for both Classical Greek scholars and those who simply wish to learn out more about the Cynics, their philosophy, and their way of life. Indeed, anyone who has overlooked this important philosophy. Scholarly in its approach, this book is yet compulsively readable. I was easily carried through the text which is generously peppered with fascinating anecdotes from the primary sources as well as Navia's own compelling interpretations. What better place to start an understanding of Cynicism than through its hero Diogenes.

   In Chapter 4, Hegel's view that Cynicism contains little philosophy and no `system' is demolished. Navia presents the reader with a very comprehensive and systematised account of what Cynicism's philosophy is, and yet achieves this without undermining Cynicism's integrity, for instance by not leaving a trail of `truths' for some unscrupulous management theorist to claim as the latest quick fix for a failing company. At the end of this chapter, Cynicism emerges with its anti-scientific credentials intact, but also with much greater clarity about what Diogenes' brand of Cynicism stands FOR as well as what it opposes. I deliberately choose the present tense here, because what Navia demonstrates in these pages, is that (unlike the ideas of say Freud or Marx, who as one writer put it `were weighed down by the cultural baggage of their time'), Diogenes' view of the world is as fresh and relevant today as it was 2,300 years ago. The reader should be left in no doubt that Cynicism represents a very powerful philosophy, even if he or she is not inclined to share it.

   Throughout the book I was impressed by passages that sent me off contemplating contemporary issues and debates, but I also appreciated the detail and minutia that conjured up vivid portraits of life at the time ~ Diogenes life in particular. The appendix of Diogenes Laertius' (not to be confused with Navia's own hero) original writings about Diogenes the Cynic is very helpful in supporting Navia's own text. What Navia has achieved cleverly in this book, is to strike a balance between producing an authoritative text which reinforces the `facts' available, while at the same time, acknowledging the myth-making that is essential for a real understanding of the Diogenes phenomenon.

   Can we have a paperback edition please!




2. This book is fabulous! Navia chronicles the life of Diogenes in an academic and professional manner, and effectively disputes many claims made by other philosopher historians, such as F. Sayre. If you are a fan of Diogenes the man and what he stood for, then you will definitely find this book edifying, but if you are not, then it is still an excellent learning experience.

No comments about Wartime Diary (Beauvoir Series).

4 comments about Friedrich Nietzsche.

1. Occasionally a book is published that daunts the reviewer's attempts to do justice to its subject--in this case, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)--and to the book's content. Curtis Cate's new biography is such a work.
   
   Cate chronicles Nietzsche's life and works in "quantitative detail," from his birth in Ro(e)cken, Germany, on Oct. 15, 1844, until his mental collapse in Turin, Italy, in Jan. 1889, and his death in Weimar on Aug. 25, 1900. One marvels at how minutely Cate narrates the year-by-year, month-by-month, and week-by-week events in Nietzsche's life.
   
   Cate describes Nietzsche's many friendships, from his early school years at Pforta, Wilhelm Pinder and Gustav Krug, and later with Paul Deussen, Carl von Gersdorff, Erwin Rohde, Franz Overbeck, Dr. Paul Ree, Malwida von Meysenbug, Heinrich Romundt, Albert Brenner, Heinrich Koselitz (Nietzsche's loyal disciple, whose musical pseudonym was "Peter Gast"), and, above all, his relationships with a beautiful and extremely intelligent 21-year-old Russian woman, Lou Salome, and with the Richard Wagner and Wagner's wife, Cosima.
   
   Over a period of three years, Nietzsche made 23 visits to Tribschen, the home of Richard and Cosima Wagner near Lucerne, Switzerland. And over the period of seven years, Nietzsche wrote close to eighty letters to Cosima, the daughter of Franz LIszt.
   
   Cate points out that Nietzsche's books are a sustained attack on metaphysical and religious beliefs. Nietzsche argued, writes Cate, that "the attention focused on otherworld fantasies had kept human beings from dealing in an honest, healthy way with the everyday realities that are of the most immediate concern to their well-being. . . . [His] whole philosophy was aimed at achieving a 'higher and nobler' degree of culture."
   
   In a letter to his busybody sister Elisabeth, who so often, during his life and especially after his death, meddled in his affairs, Nietzsche wrote: "Do we in our research seek repose, peace, happiness? No, solely the Truth, even if it be exceedingly deterring and ugly. . . . Here men's ways diverge. If you wish to aspire to peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be the disciple of the Truth, then search."
   
   Against philosophical and religious "seriousness," Nietzsche wrote, "I would believe only in a god who knew how to dance. Come, [with our laughter] let us kill the spirit of gravity."
   
   Cate shows that Nietzsche's philosophy was profoundly personal, rising as it did out of deep existential struggles: "Of all that is written I like only that which one has written with one's blood. Write in blood and you will find that blood is spirit. A book that has no fire in it deserves to be burned."
   
   Nietzsche argued that, because of the inexorable advances of science, which, he believed, showed the world to be ungottlich, unmoralisch, and unmenschlich ("non-divine," "non-moral," and "non-human"), Europe was now plunged into a grave spiritual crisis, the crisis of nihilism.
   
   In the opening pages of his posthumously published work, The Will to Power, Nietzsche wrote: "Nihilism stands at the door. When comes this uncanniest of all guests? . . . What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devalue themselves. The aim is lacking; 'why?' finds no answer." It is a will to nothingness, in which a hopeless despair adjudicates everything to be valueless and worthless, without goal, meaning, or purpose.
   
   Nietzsche's central philosophical project was to "live through nihilism" to its bitter end and, hopefully, with the creation of new values, emerge on the other side. That he failed in this project seems evident, but never has a philosopher struggled so valiantly and courageously in wrestling with the demon of nihilism, of staring for a long time into the abyss.
   
   Cate writes, "Nietzsche conceived of his mission as a thinker to be that of the herald of a new 'dawn' in philosophical thinking, the prophet of a new, more honest, less visionary morality, purged and purified of a vast accretion of moral, political, social, and metaphysical prejudices and misconceptions, which had reduced the vast majority of his contemporaries to a collective condition of sheep-like stupidity."
   
   Georg Brandes, a Danish professor and one of Nietzsche's early admirers (he delivered a series of lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy at the University of Copenhagen) described the German philosopher's basic stance as being "aristocratic radicalism." Nietzsche responded with appreciation and hearty approval, saying that Brandes' _expression "aristocratic radicalism" was the "cleverest word" he had ever read about himself.
   
   Indeed, Nietzsche's elitism exalted everything that was noble, distinguished, and excelling, and derogated all forms of mediocrity, mendacity, and anti-intellectualism, including anti-Semitism (Nietzsche was an anti-anti-Semite) and the saber-rattling stupidity of a jingoistic German nationalism.
   
   At the very heart of Nietzsche's philosophy, writes Cate, is "resistentialism." This means that "it is not what assists Man that strengthens and ennobles him, but, quite the contrary, what resists his slothful inclinations and prejudices." His philosophy calls us grow up and become men in our thinking, rather than remaining dependent children, to reject the comfort, safety, security, and certainty of the herd and become an "free spirit" who dares to travel our own paths. "This is my way," wrote Nietzsche; "where is yours? The way doesn't exist."
   
   A key motif of Cate's biography is his chronicling of Nietzsche's illnesses. All of his adult life, Nietzsche was plagued by debilitating migraines that often kept him bedridden for days, by acute negative reactions to metereological changes, causing him to wear dark glasses and become a wanderer throughout Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy in search of a climate conducive to his health. He suffered frequently from stomach upsets, nausea, fits of vomiting, and acute nervous seizures.
   
   Cate's numerous accounts of Nietzsche's struggle with ill health, scattered repeatedly across hundreds of pages, are impressive in their details, impressing on the us the long, hard struggle Nietzsche to lead the semblance of a normal life. And, although Cates only hints at the idea, one wonders if Nietzsche's "yea-saying," affirmative philosophy and his embrace of "amor fati" (love of fate) was not a defense mechanism against the perennial threat of a spirit-crushing pessimism into which he could have fallen because of his prolonged suffering.
   
   After five weeks of giving diligent attention to Cate's masterful biography, I conclude that it will take its place alongside Walter Kaufmann's Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist as one of the best--indeed, in some respects, the best--biographies of Nietzsche available in the English language. This is a distinguished volume. I recommend it most highly.
   
   Roy E. Perry of Nolensville, Tennessee, may be reached at rperry1778@aol.com
   
   (Note: Curt Paul Janz's excellent three-volume German biography of Nietzsche has not yet been translated into English.)
   
   ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Curtis Cate is the author of acclaimed biographies of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, George Sand, and Andre Malraux as well as several other books of non-fiction. He holds degrees from Harvard (History), Ecole des Langues Orientales (Russian), and Oxford (Politics and Economics). He was the European Editor for The Atlantic Monthly for eight years (1958-1965) and has written articles for the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine and the New Republic. He resides in France.



2. Nietzsche was perhaps the most important thinker in modern times. He understood that Western Mankind labored under a terrible burden, a burden forged by idealistic philosophy and biblical religion which substituted a world of timeless ideals for the reality in which men and women really exist. This burden had once been a boon of sorts but with the decline of religious faith and the growth of mass society it became heavier and more inhuman. Nietzsche's own experiences, his own difficult life, especically his German ethniciity, all these contributed to his unique sensibility and genius. But Curtis Cate's decision to explain Nietzsche's unsystematic philosophy through his life is a tedious mistake and failure. In almost 600 pages we suffer every physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological onslaught faced by Nietzsche, all in the narrow and narrowminded world of German academia and Wagnerian romanticism, yet this exposure does not really do as much for our understanding as fifty pages of clear exposition of his thought would have done. Granted that Nietzsche's thought is necessarily untidy and contradictory, since it is anti-systematic and untraditional, but to expect the reader to understand it by reliving Nietzsche's life puts far too much of a burden on a writer's life. And Nietzsche's life is not really all that interesting when compared to his thought. Biography has it place -- but perhaps not so well in the discussion of a provincial professor like Nietzsche. His brain was far better than his feeble body, and his thought rose far above the petty events and puny individuals with whom he came into contact. Except for the saintly historian Jakob Burckhardt and the mystigogue of music and culture Richard Wagner, most of the people Nietzsche was condemned to know and deal with were not worth the dust on his sandalstraps. In this biography one necessarily therefore spends a lot of time with people one could well do without, like Lou Salome for example. No, biography is not the road to understanding Nietzsche.



3. This is a truly boring treatment of Nietzsche but I can't really blame the author; Cate has an obvious mastery of the material and writes well. The bottom line is: Nietzsche's life was not very interesting and thus makes for a dull biography. Nietzsche's accomplishments were in his ideas. As a result, the biography resorts to dwelling on minute details of N's travels and correspondence.
   
   There is some value in the book as it helps to make connections between his personal life and the evolution of his ideas but these rewards are just not worth the effort of plowing through the book. Plus, it is not as accessible to the non-academic as the author claims it to be. The Nietzsche-neophyte will quickly become lost in the digressions into various philosophical issues.
   
   Ultimately, the fault with this book lies with its subject matter and not the author. If you're looking for context to understand N's ideas, there are better books out there. If you're interested in his philosophy, then read his actual works (and yes, I have read them all so don't go there). Biographies of boring people seem somewhat pointless...
   
   Not recommended.



4. 
   
   This book is criticized because it has too much biography, and not enough of Nietzsche's philosophy. And then...vice versa, too much philosophy. I have always been interested in Nietzsche the man, and this book provides the reader with a good rounded view of him. Fortunately there is an extensive amount of correspondence available to provide the biographer with the essential information necessary to construct an informative picture of both Nietzsche and those who figured prominently in his life.
   
   No, Nietzsche did not live an "exciting" life, but that's never a criterion I use in choosing to read a biography. If it's thrills you want may I suggest reading the memoirs of, perhaps, a Navy Seal. When I finished this biography I felt I knew "Fritz". I became appreciative of the extreme difficulties he faced with perpetual ill health. I found the details of his friendship with the anti-Semitic composer Richard Wagner to be quite fascinating. And yes he did travel about a lot, and maybe, at times, his mobile meanderings aren't much more interesting than reading a railroad timetable. Yet these are facts of his life.
   
   Whenever Nietzsche publishes a book Mr. Cate spends five or more pages discussing the philosophy contained in the book. For a book that is not touted as an "intellectual" biography I found this to be a good balance in acquainting the reader with Nietzsche's thoughts. This smattering of philosophical interpretation helps in understanding how the Nazis distorted his views, and made him a national hero (Hitler visited Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth several times). It also provides some understanding of his falling out with Richard Wagner. I am not an academic, although I have read a trifling amount of philosophy. In my opinion the philosophical sections were presented in a lucid manner, and should pose no challenge to the reader. I am assuming, of course, that anyone picking up a biography of Nietzsche has at least some interest in philosophy. The author does drop some heavy weight words on us occasionally, and these were in the biographical material. I don't think I've ever encountered the word "propadeutic" before, and this word occurs twice in the text.
   
   I enjoyed this book very much, and am grateful for the insight into Nietzsche's life. One reviewer suggests that you read books of his thoughts instead of this biography. Well, I already have those, but they don't tell me much about the man who produced them. While Friedrich Nietzsche didn't live an exciting life he still was an extraordinary man. This biography got that message across to me.