Thus spoke Zarathustra

a book for everyone and no one.

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Baltimore · Penguin Books · 1974

A landmark work of philosophy and of literature, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the fullest expression of Nietzche's belief that "the object of mankind should lie in its highest individuals." In his thirtieth year Zarathustra - the archetypal Ubermensch representative of supreme passion and creativity - abandons his home for the mountains, where he lives, literally and figuratively, on a level of experience far above the conventional standards of good and evil. The exuberant, poetic testimony of Nietzche's great messianic hero (and alter ego) is a vivid demonstration of the philosopher's genius. Walter Kaufmann's celebrated translation - hailed by Newsweek for its "incandescent splendor of language"--Has gained general recognition as the most authoritative version of Zarathustra existing in English.