Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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Lore & Background

Nietzsche was born into the Bildungsbürgertum, a highly cultivated middle class. By his teenage years he wrote music and poetry; a biography of Alexander von Humboldt given by his aunt Rosalie inspired a love of learning for its own sake. He became an outstanding philologist almost accidentally and renounced his ideas about being an artist. His work with Diogenes Laertius and his growing distaste for philology, combined with his turn to philosophy, led him to strongly oppose received opinion. His earlier books have been described as nihilistic destruction, and his increasing isolation and rejection of his marriage proposals to Lou Andreas-Salomé devastated him. While working on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he walked very often; the imagery of his walks mingled with his physical, emotional, and intellectual pains and his prior decades of hard work. What "erupted" was Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche said the central idea—the eternal recurrence—first occurred to him in August 1881 near a "pyramidal block of stone" while walking through the woods along the shores of Lake Silvaplana in the Upper Engadine, and he made a small note reading "6,000 feet beyond man and time." A few weeks later, he paraphrased something written by Friedrich von Hellwald about Zarathustra, which was developed into the beginning of the book. Nietzsche claimed the entire first part was conceived while walking "the magnificent road to Zoagli" and "the whole Bay of Santa Margherita," saying in a letter that it "was conceived in the course of strenuous hiking: absolute certainty, as if every sentence were being called out to me." He returned to "the sacred place" in summer 1883 and "found" the second part; in Nice the following winter he "found" the third part. According to Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, it was "scarcely one year for the entire work," and ten days each part. More broadly, he said in a letter: "The whole of Zarathustra is an explosion of forces that have been accumulating for decades." In January 1884, Nietzsche finished the third part and thought the book finished, but by November he expected a fourth part by January, also mentioning a fifth and sixth part leading to Zarathustra's death. After the fourth part was finished, he called it "a fourth (and last) part of Zarathustra, a kind of sublime finale, which is not at all meant for the public." The first three parts were initially published individually and together in 1887. The fourth part was written in 1885; forty copies were printed at Nietzsche's own expense and distributed to his closest friends, to whom he expressed "a vehement desire never to have the Fourth Part made public." In 1889 Nietzsche became significantly incapacitated. In March 1892 part four was published separately, and the following July the four parts were published in a single volume.

Reader's Guide

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a pivotal work in Nietzsche's oeuvre, introducing or elaborating ideas that have profoundly influenced philosophy, literature, and culture. Its style is analogical and figurative, leading to varied and often incompatible interpretations of what Zarathustra says, though there is some consensus on the subjects he addresses. The book's central idea, eternal recurrence, was first conceived by Nietzsche in August 1881. The work also presents the Übermensch, the death of God, and the will to power. Nietzsche chose the Persian figure Zarathustra because, as he wrote in Ecce Homo, Zarathustra created morality and therefore must be the first to expose it, overcoming morality through truthfulness. The book's composition was rapid and intense, with Nietzsche describing it as an eruption of forces accumulated over decades. Its publication history is complex: the first three parts were published individually and together in 1887; the fourth part was initially withheld from the public at Nietzsche's request, only appearing after his mental collapse. The work remains a touchstone for discussions of nihilism, perspectivism, and the amorality of nature.

Did You Know?

• The character of Zarathustra first appeared in Nietzsche's earlier book The Gay Science at §342, which closely resembles §1 of 'Zarathustra's Prologue'.
• Nietzsche said the central idea of eternal recurrence first occurred to him in August 1881 near a 'pyramidal block of stone' while walking through the woods along the shores of Lake Silvaplana.
• Nietzsche claimed the entire first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra was conceived while walking 'the magnificent road to Zoagli' and 'the whole Bay of Santa Margherita'.
• Only forty copies of the fourth part were printed at Nietzsche's own expense and distributed to his closest friends, as he expressed 'a vehement desire never to have the Fourth Part made public'.
• Nietzsche described the composition of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as 'an explosion of forces that have been accumulating for decades.'