Thus Spake Zarathustra. A Book for All and None.

NIETZSCHE'S DEFINING WORK

Translated by Alexander Tille. First edition in English, first issue. 8vo. xxiii, [7], 488, 8 [publisher's advertisements] pp. Original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt with blind-stamped decorative roundels, black coated endpapers, edges untrimmed (neat contemporary ownership inscription of 'Hugh E. Seebohm' to half title, a few isolated instances of pencilled underling, otherwise generally internally clean; some trivial shelf wear to extremities, corners gently bumped, an excellent copy). Housed in a morocco backed solander box. London, H. Henry and Co. Ltd.

The first English translation of Nietzsche's defining philosophical work. A sprawling, rhapsodic work, written primarily in prose, Zarathustra served as a thunderous announcement of Nietzsche's mature philosophy. Under the guise of the central character Zarathustra, a re-invention and subversion of his namesake, Nietzsche expounds his declamatory message of the Übermensch, the death of God, and the transvaluation of all values.

The present English translation was advertised as the eighth volume of a projected eleven volume set of Nietzsche's collected works, although confusingly it was in fact only the second title published in the series overall. The unbound sheets of the first edition were eventually purchased by the publisher T. Fisher Unwin, who re-issued the book with their imprint on the spine - the present example is the correct first issue with 'Henry and Co.' in gilt to the spine. An American edition also appeared later in the same year published by the Macmillan Company in New York.

PMM, 370 (first edition).

Stock Code: 252613