Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher and classical scholar, who wrote on morality, culture, religion and the nature of knowledge. He left his university post in Basel because of poor health, and in the 1880s he wrote his most important books, often in rented rooms in Switzerland, Italy and France. His writing career ended in 1889, when he suffered a mental collapse from which he never recovered.

Beyond Good and Evil was first published in 1886 at Nietzsche’s own expense, and it was at first little noticed. In it he turned on the moral assumptions of nineteenth-century thinkers. He accused philosophers of lacking critical sense and of accepting Christian morality without question, and he proposed that values should be examined for their origins and their effects on life. The book is a collection of aphorisms and short essays arranged in parts, and it moves quickly from one subject to another, which can be demanding for a first-time listener. Nietzsche’s style, with its exclamations, irony and questions, is as important as his arguments.

His work has been read, and sometimes misread, in many ways, and it has had an enormous influence on twentieth-century thought, literature and the arts. The English translation recorded here is by Helen Zimmern, a pioneering translator of Nietzsche, whose version dates from the early twentieth century.

The recording has ten sections and lasts about eight hours. It is read by volunteers for LibriVox. Why listen today? Because Nietzsche’s questions about values, truth and self-deception remain provocative. You do not have to agree with him to profit from the challenge, and hearing the aphorisms aloud gives their rhythm a force that silent reading often misses.