Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Philosophers -- Germany -- Biography; Philosophy, German -- 19th century
Your intervention on behalf of Bizet's widow gave me great pleasure.
Please let me have her address; also that of prince Urussov. A copy
has been sent to your friend, the Princess Dmitrievna Ténicheff. When
my next book is published, which will be before very long (the title
is now _The Twilight of the Idols. Or, How to Philosophise with the
Hammer_), I should much like to send a copy to the Swede you introduce
to me in such laudatory terms. But I do not know where he lives. This
book is my philosophy _in nuce_--radical to the point of criminality....
As to the effect of _Tristan_, I, too, could tell strange tales. A
regular dose of mental anguish seems to me a splendid tonic before a
Wagnerian repast. The _Reichsgerichtsrath_ Dr. Wiener of Leipzig gave
me to understand that a Carlsbad cure was also a good thing....
Ah, how industrious you are! And idiot that I am, not to understand
Danish! I am quite willing to take your word for it that one can
"revive" in Russia better than elsewhere; I count any Russian book,
above all Dostoievsky (translated into French, for Heaven's sake not
German!!) among my greatest sources of relief.
Cordially and, with good reason, gratefully,
Yours,
NIETZSCHE.
19. BRANDES to NIETZSCHE.
_Copenhagen,_ Nov. 16, 1888.
MY DEAR SIR,
I have waited in vain for an answer from Paris to learn the address
of Madame Bizet. On the other hand, I now have the address of Prince
Urussov. He lives in Petersburg, Sergievskaia 79.
My three books are now out. I have begun my lectures here.
Curious it is how something in your letter and in your book about
Dostoievsky coincides with my own impressions of him. I have mentioned
you, too, in my work on Russia, when dealing with Dostoievsky. He is a
great poet, but an abominable creature, quite Christian in his emotions
and at the same time quite _sadique_. His whole morality is what you
have baptised slave-morality.
The mad Swede's name is August Strindberg; he lives here. His address
is Holte, near Copenhagen. He is particularly fond of you, because he
thinks he finds in you his own hatred of women. On this account he
calls you "modern" (irony of fate). On reading the newspaper reports
of my spring lectures, he said: "It is an astonishing thing about this
Nietzsche; much of what he says is just what I might have written." His
drama, _Père_, has appeared in French with a preface by Zola.
I feel mournful whenever I think of Germany. What a development is now
going on there! How sad to think that to all appearance one will never
in one's lifetime be a historical witness of the smallest good thing.
What a pity that so learned a philologist as you should not understand
Danish. I am doing all I can to prevent my books on Poland and Russia
being translated, so that I may not be expelled, or at least refused
the right of speaking when I next go there.
Hoping that these lines will find you still at Turin or will be
forwarded to you, I am,
Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE BRANDES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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