Abstract

One might legitimately wonder why, if Christopher Middleton, in his Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche, published translations of approximately ten per cent of the total available Nietzschean correspondence, the current translators have elected to repeat roughly sixty per cent of these in the present work. One might extend this misgiving to a further questioning as to why the co-translators have chosen to include "representative" passages of these letters when Middleton translates them in their entirety. Stripping sentences from paragraphs and paragraphs from pages is surely no way to present a meaningful portrait of their author. If this were done with the intention of presenting a simple, non-contradictory view of Nietzsche's development or personality, it would be understandable, if unjustifiable. But it is not. If the present translations were markedly fresh and lucid in contrast to previously bungled efforts, it would be understandable. But they are not. If Middleton's content footnotes were occasionally lifted from Schlechta, they made up in substance what they lacked in originality. The few footnotes scattered here might be copiously expanded to explain what is going on--going on in the letter, going on in Nietzsche's development, going on in the book. As it is, all one can do is ask: Why bother?--R. J. G.