Nietzsche and Philosophy

One of the first major books by Gilles Deleuze, published in French in 1962, is dedicated to Friedrich Nietzsche — a visionary thinker, creator of numerous original concepts, possessor of a biting literary style, and uncompromising polemicist. The historical and philosophical pathos of this work lay in dispelling the misunderstandings surrounding Nietzsche's figure, generated by biased quasi-Nazi interpretations of his works and the unscrupulous handling of the archives left after him, while the philosophical aim was to outline his most innovative ideas, which were subject to further development: for Deleuze, these became the ideas of the struggle of forces, the reevaluation of values, and eternal return, which later served as the foundation for his own concepts. The brilliant realization of both tasks made this book, on one hand, an excellent introduction to Nietzsche's philosophy, and on the other hand, a promising outline of Deleuze's thought, sketching its main lines of force.