Author and journalist Köhler has carefully charted the history of philosophy, music and Nazism in well-received translated works like Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation
and Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet and His Disciple. Now Yale offers this abridged version of a book first published in Germany a dozen years ago, minus an analysis of Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Köhler's main assertion is that Nietzsche was gay, or wanted to be and didn't dare to act on it, and was especially tormented as a result. To this end, Köhler recounts a number of unproven assertions, such as that Nietzsche contracted the syphilis that drove him mad in "a male brothel in Genoa." Such speculations can be taken too far, such as when Köhler states confidently that the young Nietzsche enjoyed Lord Byron's poetry because of "Byron's perversions." Perhaps this book's abridgment affected its symmetry, but it lacks the shapely form and persuasive arguments of Nietzsche and Wagner. The clear translation brings passages of neo-Nietzschean ornate writing to life: "Throughout the nineteenth century and far into the twentieth the exiles of Sodom sought a new home in the 'warm south.' Nietzsche joined them...." Since no tell-all exists, the book's whole argument consists of approximations and near-misses. (June)
Forecast:Given Köhler's track record and the Yale imprimatur, university libraries will want this, but R.J. Hollingdale's authoritative
Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy (Cambridge Univ. Press) and Rudiger Safranski's
Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography (Forecasts, Nov. 12, 2001) are better places to send curious readers.
