The Birth of Tragedy

Written by Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by William Sigalis

The Birth of Tragedy stands alongside Aristotle’s Poetics as essential works for all who seek to understand poetry and its relationship to human life. In this, his first book, Nietzsche developed a way of thinking about the arts that unites the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus as the central symbol of human existence. Although tragedy serves as the focus of this work, music, visual art, dance, and the other arts can also be viewed using Nietzsche’s analysis and integration of the Apollonian and the Dionysian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Agora Publications
• Release date: Jan 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780990459934

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher and author. Born into a line of Protestant churchman, Nietzsche studied Classical literature and language before becoming a professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He became a philosopher after reading Schopenhauer, who suggested that God does not exist, and that life is filled with pain and suffering. Nietzsche’s first work of prominence was The Birth of Tragedy in 1872, which contained new theories regarding the origins of classical Greek culture. From 1883 to 1885 Nietzsche composed his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra, in which he famously proclaimed that “God is dead.” He went on to release several more notable works including Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals, both of which dealt with the origins of moral values. Nietzsche suffered a nervous breakdown in 1889 and passed away in 1900, but not before giving us his most famous quote, “From life's school of war: what does not kill me makes me stronger.”

Reviews for The Birth of Tragedy

[Y Woo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

FYI, these 3 narrators are the exact same person:
- Ray Childs
- Albert A. Anderson
- William Sigalis

I can’t help but think that it’s Socrates who is speaking