Thus Spake Zarathustra; A Book for All and None

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1896. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. First printing of the first English edition, American issue, octavo size, 518 pp., in a custom box. Nietzsche's mature period began with the publication of "Human, All-Too-Human" in 1878, and culminated with "Thus Spake Zarathustra", published in four parts between 1883 and 1885. Nietzsche wrote each of the first three parts in ten-day spurts, while living alone in modest conditions and battling horrendous ill health. They were each published separately, and the fourth part did not reach the general public until 1892. While his writing and thinking were incredibly energetic, he was miserably lonely and continued to suffer from indigestion, migraines, and insomnia.

Written in a passionate, quasi-biblical style, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is daring in form and filled with provocative, thought-provoking concepts. Today, the work is regarded as a forerunner of modern existentialist thought, a book that has provoked and stimulated students of philosophy and literature for more than 100 years (n. b., info from Wikipedia).

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full green cloth over boards, publication date on the title page and copyright page of 1896, eight pp. of publisher's ads bound in at the rear; octavo size (7 3/4" by 5 1/8"), pagination: [i-iv] v-xxiii [7] 1-479 [1, blank] [8, ads]. Housed in a new custom clamshell case covered with green cloth, green paper spine label with gilt lettering.

___CONDITION: Volume very good overall: the exterior good only with light overall wear and soiling (including a small black spot on the back board) and sunning, overall dustiness and light foxing to the bottom edge of the text block; internally with a strong binding structure (a strong, square text block and solid hinges (note that the hinges appear to have had some work by a prior owner)); the text pages clean with light scattered foxing, and entirely free of prior owner markings. The clamshell box fine.

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