NIETZSCHE, Friederich.

Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen I: David Strauss (Unconventional Observation I: David Strauss).

Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch, 1873. FIRST EDITION TP + [1]-101 + [102] = advertisements, Octavo. Schaberg 23a. The first of Nietzsche's Unconventional Observations was an attack on David Strauss the writer who had made his reputation with his scandalous Life of Jesus in 1835. Here Nietzsche attacks his most recent book The Old and the New Faith, which advocated the rejection of the Christian faith in favor of a Darwinian, materialistic and patriotic world-view. Nietzsche accuses Strauss of being a "Cultural Philistine" and denounces him as an exemplar of pseudo-culture. Although erudite, the essay is extremely intemperate and filled with references to many of Nietzsche's scholarly contemporaries. The climax is a literary tour de force, in which Nietzsche cites a litany of malapropisms from Strauss, interspersed with his own barbed comments. For Nietzsche, Strauss's book was the incarnation of the Zeitgeist: unproductive smugness, intellectual snobbery, superficial assimilation of great works of art and new scientific theories, myopic criticism and patronizing praise of even the greatest genius…But what enraged him most was Strauss's comfortable and untroubled renunciation of Christianity, coupled with an easy conviction that Darwin was one of mankind's greatest benefactors and that traditional values could of course be maintained. It is in the present work that Nietzsche first publicly addresses the problem of the derivation of moral values that would infuse so much of his most important work. A plain and simple modern binding with a small gold-lettered label on the spine. A very bright copy with a few underlinings in blue pencil on pages 50-67. Lacking the original loose "Correction" sheet (as usual). Excepting only the modern binding this is a fine, bright copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

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• bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)