Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings

The Birth of Tragedy is one of the seminal philosophical works of the modern period. Nietzsche's discussion of the nature of culture, of the conditions under which it can flourish and of those under which it will decline, his analysis of the sources of discontent with the modern world, his criticism of rationalism and of traditional morality, his aesthetic theories and his conception of the 'Dionysiac' have had a profound influence on the philosophy, literature, music, and politics of the twentieth century. This edition presents a new translation by Ronald Speirs and an introduction by Raymond Geuss that sets the work in its historical and philosophical context. The volume also includes two essays on related topics that Nietzsche wrote during the same period, and that throw further light on the themes treated in the main text.

Review: 'The main purpose of the book was to challenge nineteenth-century idealisations of classical Greece: ancient tragedy at its greatest, Nietzsche argued, was animated not by orderliness and quite decorum but by an inebriated frenzy of music, dnace and rollicking enormity.' New Humanist