Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
Friedrich Nietzsche
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism.
Thus Spake Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra), is a work composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885. Much of the work deals with ideas such as the "eternal recurrence of the same", the parable on the "death of God", and the "prophecy" of the Overman, which were first introduced in The Gay Science. Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written", the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that the style of the Bible is used by Nietzsche to present ideas of his which fundamentally oppose Judaeo-Christian morality and tradition. (Summary from Wikipedia) (0 hr 39 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
Paul Santo
This was the last book i needed to read to complete the Nietzsche collection and it didn't disappoint. i guess it's time to move on to a new Philosopher.
Great book, Most Volunteers Adept
A LibriVox Listener
This book is very interesting, but there are three different speakers who are so grating that it almost made me stop. There is a man who seems to be reading as if he's doing a false voice in Involuntary bliss but thankfully reads only once, a woman reading Three Evil Things who is not a native speaker and mispronounced so many words that were meant to be emphasized in a powerful way that it was a total dis-service to the passage's meaning and the worst of the entire book, and the speaker for The Greeting and a few before it is not only a non-native speaker but I could hear horns, construction, birds, and even what seemed to be voices in the background. Somehow, all these noises are still not as problematic as the speakers misunderstanding of English cadence and, obviously, pronunciation. I appreciate what volunteers do for Librivox, but maybe it's best if you don't volunteer for complex subject matter when the most basic of language is still beyond you. Aside from these, 85% of the volunteers are delightful.
What does it all mean??!
SJM
Thank thanks to all the volunteers who read this. This work is a treasure trove of wisdom and thanks to Librivox, long trips in the car have become a lot more engaging. Nietzsche is like a Western Confucius. Compare the ideas and symbols in this novel with those of Twilight of the Idols, Beyond Good and Evil, and the Will to Power and common threads starr becoming apparent.
Mixed
Iconoclast
Mixed quality of readers, some with background street noise, or poorly read, but generally acceptable. The importance of the work for Nietzsche studies and the quality of the work though make it indispensable.
Mikko
amazing read on most parts, but certain voices and constantly changing accents sometimes threw me off completely. apart from that a magnificent prose!
A noble effort, but a few of the readers were hard to follow.
Paulexander
Great
A LibriVox Listener
Although some of the recordings had some annoyances overall good reading.
braintoucher
Fantastic book! Readers were awful for the most part.