Texts, translations, and further reading
This guide cites books and section numbers so you can use your own edition. We prefer Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale where the editions below cover the assigned work. Publisher links provide edition and purchase information; ask your library about borrowing the named edition. Free online alternatives remain available through Project Gutenberg. Their wording and editorial notes belong to the credited translators, not to Kaufmann or Hollingdale.
How to find a passage
These are edition recommendations, not replacement texts hosted on this site. Existing quotations retain their stated sources. Page numbers vary: follow the work, part or essay, and section number. Chapter headings may differ. “Overman” and “superman” translate Übermensch; “Apollinian” and “Apollonian” refer to the same term. Check the chapter’s position and neighboring headings when its English title differs.
§ means section; §§ means several sections. In the Genealogy, a Roman numeral identifies the essay: III §28 means the third essay, section 28. In Zarathustra, use the part and chapter title. Translation choices can change titles: “Self-Overcoming” may appear as “Self-Surpassing,” for example.
Some links open near the assigned section; others open the book or chapter. Use the contents or your browser’s Find command to locate the number or title in the assignment. A reading step can include several passages.
Preferred editions and free online alternatives
- The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom)
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. The Gay Science — publisher and purchase options.
The free edition is titled The Joyful Wisdom: prose translated by Thomas Common, with poetry rendered by Paul V. Cohn and Maude D. Petre. It includes all five books, the later preface, the verse prelude, and the songs.
Free online alternative: read text - Beyond Good and Evil
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. Basic Writings of Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
The free prose translation is by Helen Zimmern; the closing poem, From the Heights, is translated by L. A. Magnus. Kaufmann titles the poem From High Mountains. Section numbers run continuously from 1 to 296 across all nine parts. Book guide and edition guidance.
Free online alternative: read text - Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. The Portable Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
The free edition is Thomas Common’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and includes all four parts. Its Roman numerals I–LXXX number chapters continuously; use the part and chapter title to match references across translations. Its introduction by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and appended notes by Anthony M. Ludovici are separate from Nietzsche’s own text.
Free online alternative: read text - Daybreak (The Dawn of Day)
Preferred translation: R. J. Hollingdale. Daybreak — publisher and purchase options.
Edited by Maudemarie Clark and Brian Leiter. Also known as The Dawn of Day in the free edition.
Translated by J. M. Kennedy.
Free online alternative: read text - On the Genealogy of Morals
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo — publisher and purchase options.
The joint translation credit applies to On the Genealogy of Morals; Ecce Homo is translated by Kaufmann.
The free Genealogy is translated by Horace B. Samuel. Its Preface and each of the three essays have separate section numbering. Include Nietzsche’s closing Note after Essay I §17 and the epigraph before Essay III §1. Editorial material and the translator’s footnotes are separate commentary. The appended Peoples and Countries, translated by J. M. Kennedy, is a separate text outside the Genealogy.
Free online alternative: read text - Twilight of the Idols
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. The Portable Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
The free translation is by Anthony M. Ludovici. Section numbers restart in each chapter, and several titles differ from Kaufmann’s. Its contents omit the six-stage “true world” chapter and “The Hammer Speaketh,” although both appear in the text. Continue through the Hammer despite the preceding “THE END,” then stop before The Antichrist. The translator’s preface, editorial footnotes, and the other works collected in this volume are separate from Nietzsche’s Twilight. Book guide, matching titles, and reading boundaries.
Free online alternative: read text - The Antichrist
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. The Portable Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
Free alternative: H. L. Mencken. Begin at Nietzsche’s Preface; the preceding Introduction and editorial notes belong to the translator. This older text retains all 62 section numbers but omits portions of §§29, 35, and 38, and the separate Law Against Christianity. The course follows Kaufmann. Book guide, exact edition differences, and optional supplement.
Free online alternative: read text - Ecce Homo
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. Basic Writings of Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
The free prose translation is by Anthony M. Ludovici. Nietzsche’s text runs from the Preface through “Why I Am a Fatality” (this site’s “Why I Am a Destiny”); Ludovici’s introduction, the editorial note, and the separately credited poetry that follows are outside it. In several places, including “Why I Am So Wise” §3, the free text differs from the modern critical text. Written in 1888; first published in 1908.
Free online alternative: read text - The Birth of Tragedy
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. Basic Writings of Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
Translated by William A. Haussmann.
Free online alternative: read text - Human, All Too Human, Part I
Preferred translation: R. J. Hollingdale. Human, All Too Human — publisher and purchase options.
Cambridge edition with an introduction by Richard Schacht. Includes both volumes; in Volume II, distinguish Assorted Opinions and Maxims from The Wanderer and His Shadow, whose section numbers restart.
Translated by Helen Zimmern.
Free online alternative: read text - Human, All Too Human, Part II
Preferred translation: R. J. Hollingdale. Human, All Too Human — publisher and purchase options.
Cambridge edition with an introduction by Richard Schacht. Includes both volumes; in Volume II, distinguish Assorted Opinions and Maxims from The Wanderer and His Shadow, whose section numbers restart.
Translated by Paul V. Cohn.
Free online alternative: read text - The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche Contra Wagner
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann. Basic Writings of Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options.
The Case of Wagner is in Basic Writings; Nietzsche Contra Wagner is in The Portable Nietzsche. These are different works.
The Portable Nietzsche — publisher and purchase options for Nietzsche Contra Wagner.
Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici.
Free online alternative: read textThe Case of Wagner guide · Nietzsche Contra Wagner guide. The Ludovici volume also contains translator prefaces and separately labelled selected aphorisms; these are outside the two works. Its Nietzsche Contra Wagner omits the Intermezzo and closing poem found in the critical text; consult a complete edition for those parts.
- Untimely Meditations: History and Schopenhauer (Thoughts Out of Season, Part II)
Preferred translation: R. J. Hollingdale. Untimely Meditations — publisher and purchase options.
Edited by Daniel Breazeale. Includes all four essays. The free editions divide them across two volumes under the title Thoughts Out of Season.
Translated by Adrian Collins.
Free online alternative: read text - Untimely Meditations: Strauss and Wagner (Thoughts Out of Season, Part I)
Preferred translation: R. J. Hollingdale. Untimely Meditations — publisher and purchase options.
Edited by Daniel Breazeale. Includes all four essays. The free editions divide them across two volumes under the title Thoughts Out of Season.
Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici.
Free online alternative: read text - Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays
This historical collection has no single matching Kaufmann or Hollingdale edition recommended here. Use the credited free edition and check the individual essay title; selections in modern anthologies do not necessarily cover the whole assignment.
Translated by Maximilian A. Mügge.
Free online alternative: read textGuide to Homer’s Contest and On Truth and Lies. The guide assigns two essays from this seven-essay collection, not the entire historical volume.
- The Will to Power, Books I–II
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. The Will to Power — publisher and purchase options.
Edited by Kaufmann. This posthumous notebook compilation is not a finished book authorized by Nietzsche. Books I–II contain entries 1–465 in the expanded 1,067-section compilation; these editorial numbers are not original notebook references.
The free alternative is translated by Anthony M. Ludovici. Its entry numbering follows the same expanded compilation, but wording and editorial corrections differ. Use numbered entries rather than page numbers to compare editions. Notebook readings on master and slave morality.
Free online alternative: read text - The Will to Power, Books III–IV
Preferred translation: Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. The Will to Power — publisher and purchase options.
Edited by Kaufmann. This posthumous notebook compilation is not a finished book authorized by Nietzsche. Books III–IV contain entries 466–1067 in the expanded 1,067-section compilation; these editorial numbers are not original notebook references.
The free alternative is translated by Anthony M. Ludovici. Its entry numbering follows the same expanded compilation, but wording and editorial corrections differ. Use numbered entries rather than page numbers to compare editions. Notebook readings on master and slave morality.
Free online alternative: read text
Further reading and disagreements
These books represent different approaches. They are further reading, not a claim that every interpretation on this site has been reviewed by their authors.
- Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Princeton University Press. The interpretive tradition identified in this guide’s About page.
- Maudemarie Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. Consult especially the chapters on perspectivism and will to power.
- Brian Leiter, Nietzsche on Morality, second edition. Routledge. An approach to Nietzsche through naturalism and moral psychology.
- Hugo Drochon, Nietzsche’s Great Politics. Princeton University Press. Read the introduction (PDF) for a challenge to an exclusively apolitical interpretation.
Compare an interpretation with the complete passage and its neighbors. An explanation on this site is an argument about the text; the citation gives you a way to test it.