*SOLD*
 
Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Leipzig, 1889
 
First edition, first issue(only Nietzsche titles on the rear cover) in original wrappers. One of 1000 copies - however, the publisher did not bind all 1000 copies with this original rear cover. Some time later, he issued the same first edition text with a new rear cover that advertised other authors.(Schaberg) Restoration to spine, miscellaneous creasing to covers with scattered markings, internally clean and sound - overall a nice, Very Good copy in the rarest form.
 
Nietzsche's remarkable attack on the "ugly" Socrates, Christianity, and the general moral landscape of his day. The origin of the oft quoted, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
 
'...one of the last two philosophical works written by Friedrich Nietzsche at lightning speed (he completed it in a week) before he succumbed to insanity the following year. By this time Nietzsche had already established a name for himself with Thus Spoke Zarathustra in Europe’s literary-philosophical enclaves, though his incorrigible cynicism made him believe that most readers had not adequately grasped the work. In order to rectify the situation, he felt he had to simplify its main ideas and present them in a more digestible format à la Cliff Notes. The result is Twilight of the Idols, a summary of sorts of the philosophical thoughts that had preoccupied him all his life. But the book, furious and acerbic in tone, is also something else: it functions as a metaphorical hammer that seeks to destroy everything that is deemed “good” and “acceptable” by traditionalists.'(Hollingdale)

[philosophy]