We recently read this book in our book group.
I loved it.
Set in nineteenth century Vienna the author cleverly creates a story that entwines the lives of Friedrich Nietzsche with that of Josef Breuer. Although they never actually met in real life, it is interesting to imagine the conversations (“talking cure”) that would have taken place between arguably Europe’s greatest philosopher and one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis.
The author has created a moving, dramatic and ultimately uplifting novel about two extraordinary thinkers who through their own troubled lives eventually became firm friends and learnt to accept their destiny.
Considering Nietschze died at the age of 56, plagued all his life with ill health (rumoured to have died from the madness brought on by syphilis) , he produced a huge amount of literature on his philosophy. Essentially he was an existentialist and in my view was the founder of the self-help books. A lot of his theories on the world still remain true today.
Ultimately the book covered the issues of truth, despair, self discovery and destiny.
Here are some of his quotes:-
“Amor fati” (choose your fate/love your fate)
“We’re all fellow sufferers unable to see each other’s truths”
“A tree requires stormy weather if it is to attain a proud height”
“Become who you are. And how can one discover who and what one is without the truth?”
“More in love with desire than with the desired”
“Life is a spark between two voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death”.
“A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love”
“There are no facts only interpretations”
“That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
“and we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once and we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh”
“The secret for harvesting from experience the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is to live dangerously”
He is on my top 10 list of people I would have liked to have met.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I'll have to check that out. I recently read another 19th century Vienna novel featuring Freud, Mahler and others. It's called The Little Book, and the author is Selden Edwards. I highly recommend it! The protagonist is a time travelling 1960s American rock star.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Thanks Karin, I've made a note and will look out for it – sounds interesting and a good idea to integrate different centuries – as I was saying most of what Nietzsche said still holds weight today Lx