Companion texts and criticism

Public-domain sources only (published before 1929). Nietzsche's own other writings are primary text; the critics are early readers — useful, partisan, and a century old. Modern scholarship is not here.

Nietzsche elsewhere

• The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza) Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 · 10 excerpts

  The book Zarathustra grows out of: the madman's announcement that God is dead (§125), the first statement of eternal recurrence (§341), and Zarathustra's opening scene (§342).

• Ecce Homo Friedrich Nietzsche, 1888 · 24 excerpts

  Nietzsche's late account of himself: how Zarathustra was conceived, and why he calls himself a destiny.

Critics and commentators

• Aristocratic Radicalism Georg Brandes, 1889 · 41 excerpts

  The first serious public lectures on Nietzsche (Copenhagen, 1888), by the Danish critic Nietzsche corresponded with.

• Introduction to Thus Spake Zarathustra Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, 1905 · 11 excerpts

  The sister's account of the book's origins. She controlled the Nietzsche archive and edited his legacy to suit her own nationalist and antisemitic politics; read her as a source to be checked, not an authority.

  Partisan source: the author shaped Nietzsche's posthumous reputation and is not a reliable interpreter.

• The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche H. L. Mencken, 1908 · 48 excerpts

  The first book on Nietzsche in English: a forceful, partisan popular exposition.

• Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra Anthony M. Ludovici, 1909 · 61 excerpts

  A chapter-by-chapter commentary by one of the English translators, written as a guide for first readers.