Nietzsche's Middle Period [Hardcover]

Ruth Abbey presents a close study of Nietzsche's works,Human, All Too Human,Daybreak, andThe Gay Science. Although these middle period works tend to be neglected in commentaries on Nietzsche, they repay careful attention. Abbey's commentary brings to light important differences across Nietzsche's oeuvre that have gone unnoticed, filling a serious gap in the literature.

Abbey's aim to defend the distinctiveness, as well as the superior worth, of this neglected phase of Nietzsche's development, and thereby take the first steps toward a genealogical inquiry into the choices Nietzsche made across the course of his writing career (p.156). Abbey initiates this inquiry in a spirit of competent cross-examination. Her approach is logical, her Nietzsche liberal in outlook...I Profiled from Abbey's synthesis of themes in the middle writings and since I have spent more time with Nietzsche's later works, I value the correction she seeks in Nietzsche scholarship. My favorite chapters- Equal Among Firsts and We Children of the Enlightened --concern friendship and science. The friendship chapter exhibits Nietzsche's genuine insight on this classical theme, and it is strengthened by its use of his letters. --The Review of Metaphysics