The good European

In The Good European, David Farrell Krell and Donald L. Bates explore for the first time - and with uncommon insight - Nietzsche's Epicurean appreciation of the beautiful cities and magnificent landscapes in which he lived and worked.

Bringing to bear their own individual talents and training in philosophy and photography, the authors gradually immerse us in Nietzsche's aesthetic world. From Saxony to the Swiss Alps, from the Riviera to the Dolomites of Recoaro, Krell and Bates skillfully guide us, in word and image, through the course of Nietzsche's philosophical thought and continental wanderings, and along his often painful path from genius to madness.

Krell's masterful translations of the thinker's most evocative writings on his work sites - many appearing here for the first time in English - merge seamlessly with Bates's penetrating photographic essays. We are, in essence, invited to share with Nietzsche, through his voice and vision, his own experience of these extraordinary sites.