Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE Youth
- PART TWO The Reluctant Professor
- Chapter 6 Basel
- Chapter 7 Richard Wagner and the Birth of The Birth of Tragedy
- Chapter 8 War and Aftermath
- Chapter 9 Anal Philology
- Chapter 10 Untimely Meditations
- Chapter 11 Aimez-vous Brahms?
- Chapter 12 Auf Wiedersehen Bayreuth
- Chapter 13 Sorrento
- Chapter 14 Human, All-Too-Human
- PART THREE The Nomad
- Chronology
- Notes
- Bibliography of Secondary Literature
- Index
- Plate section
Chapter 11 - Aimez-vous Brahms?
from PART TWO - The Reluctant Professor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE Youth
- PART TWO The Reluctant Professor
- Chapter 6 Basel
- Chapter 7 Richard Wagner and the Birth of The Birth of Tragedy
- Chapter 8 War and Aftermath
- Chapter 9 Anal Philology
- Chapter 10 Untimely Meditations
- Chapter 11 Aimez-vous Brahms?
- Chapter 12 Auf Wiedersehen Bayreuth
- Chapter 13 Sorrento
- Chapter 14 Human, All-Too-Human
- PART THREE The Nomad
- Chronology
- Notes
- Bibliography of Secondary Literature
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Nietzsche spent the Christmas and New Year of 1873–4 in Naumburg. Despite being sick with ‘the usual litany’, he was as thrilled as ever by his Christmas presents, itemising them in a letter to von Gersdorff with boyish glee: among others, a gilt photo album for large photographs, a wooden letter holder with a carved floral design from Elizabeth, items made of Russian leather from Princess Therese of Altenburg (his father's former pupil), and a large Raphael reproduction. From Naumburg he made a side trip to Leipzig to check up on how the second Untimely Meditation was going with Fritzsch and to visit Ritschl, who subjected him to ‘a verbal barrage’ concerning the awfulness of Wagner's poetry, Overbeck's book, and Nietzsche's supposedly pro-French stance (a supposition based, presumably, on his critique of Wilhelminian Germany).
Back in Basel at the beginning of January, he was sick most of the time through to the beginning of April with the usual intestinal troubles and nausea. And his eyesight was as bad as ever. Fortunately, however, his high-school pupil, Adolf Baumgartner, whom he found both talented and sympathetic, offered his services as amanuensis. Son of a now-deceased Alsatian industrialist, Adolf introduced Nietzsche to his mother, Marie, with whom, we shall see, he formed a warm friendship.
Depression, Marriage, and Dropping Out
For much of the first half of 1874 Nietzsche was again depressed. At the beginning of April he reports that though his physical health is now ‘excellent’ he is very ‘dissatisfied’ with life.
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- Friedrich NietzscheA Philosophical Biography, pp. 182 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010