He is self-obsessed, self-aggrandising, aggressively criticises other people by name, directly promotes the importance of an uneducated “slave” class, includes a few poems, repeatedly refers to his other books and ultimately seems to advocate the loss of all empathy from society… But, despite all that, his writing is sharp, intriguing and often offers interesting/terrifying insights into the dominant European mentalities that led to the warring and nationalistic first half of the 20 th century. Nietzsche comes across as a cantankerous, probably inebriated, selfish old man with little personal regard for anyone he’s ever met.

There is some of the most aggressive misogyny I have ever read, as well as incredibly unpalatable generalisations about Jewish people, the French, the English, Germans, Austrians and anyone unfortunate enough to not be from Europe.

Some were interesting, some very dull and some were incredibly fucking offensive. They are grouped, thematically, and each section offers opinions and thoughts (or ideas/philosophies?) about different topics. Structurally, this book is the same as David Shields’ marvelous Reality Hunger, and Jean Cocteau’s Opium – it is 296 separate sections varying in length from a short sentence through to a few pages. This was not just an unfamiliar writer, but a type of writing I’m none too comfortable amongst.

So, for me, reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil was a relatively new experience twice over. Technically JUST Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

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