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Nietzsche in Italy
A fascinating classic account of Nietzsche's travels in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, where he found inspiration for his major works
For fifteen years, after his first visit to the country in1876, Nietzsche was repeatedly and irresistibly drawn back to Italy's climate and lifestyle. It was there that he composed his most famous works, including Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ecce Homo.
This classic biography follows the troubled philosopher from Rome, to Florence, via Venice, Sorrento, Genoa, Sicily and finally to the tragic denouement in Turin, the city in which Nietzsche found a final measure of contentment before his irretrievable collapse. Endlessly fascinating and highly readable, Nietzsche in Italy will enthral anyone interested in Nietzsche's relationship with the country that enriched his soul more than any other.
For fifteen years, after his first visit to the country in1876, Nietzsche was repeatedly and irresistibly drawn back to Italy's climate and lifestyle. It was there that he composed his most famous works, including Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ecce Homo.
This classic biography follows the troubled philosopher from Rome, to Florence, via Venice, Sorrento, Genoa, Sicily and finally to the tragic denouement in Turin, the city in which Nietzsche found a final measure of contentment before his irretrievable collapse. Endlessly fascinating and highly readable, Nietzsche in Italy will enthral anyone interested in Nietzsche's relationship with the country that enriched his soul more than any other.
117 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 28, 2022
About the author
Guy de Pourtalès
100 books2 followersGuy de Pourtalès (4 August 1881 Berlin – 12 June 1941 Lausanne) was a Swiss author.
He was the son of Herman Alexander de Pourtalès (1847–1904) and his first wife, Marguerite "Daisy" Marcet (1857–1888). Guy was born in Berlin, where his father at that time was an officer in the service of the Prussian king Wilhelm I. When he was six years old, the family returned to Switzerland, where they lived first at Malagny near Versoix in the Canton of Geneva and then, after his father's second marriage (with Hélène Barbey) in 1891, at Mies in the Canton de Vaud. Guy de Pourtalès went to schools in Geneva and in Vevey and then to the gymnasium in Neuchâtel. After his matura in 1899, he studied in Germany. In Karlsruhe, he began to study Chemistry, which he abandoned soon in favor of musical studies, which he continued from 1902 to 1905 at the University of Bonn. In 1905, he moved to Paris, where he studied literature at the Sorbonne.
Guy de Pourtalès published his first novel in Paris in 1910. One year later, he married Hélène Marcuard, with whom he would have three children, and in 1912, his French nationality was restored upon his demand, since his family were Huguenots who had fled from France to Neuchâtel after the Edict of Fontainebleau revoking the Edict of Nantes. Just before World War I, his second novel appeared.
In 1914, he was drafted into service in the French army as a translator for the British troops in Flanders. At Ypres, he was gassed in 1915 and evacuated to Paris where he slowly recovered. He co-founded the Société littéraire de France, where he also published in 1917 his Deux contes de fées pour les grandes personnes ("Two fairy tales for grown-ups"). At the end of the war, he again served as a translator, this time for the American troops. After he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1919, he rented the castle of Etoy in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland in 1921 and henceforth would spend several months a year there. A large part of his literary work was written in Etoy.
From the 1920s on, Pourtalès published a series of romantic biographies of musicians and also wrote essays, critiques, and journalistic pieces for a variety of French magazines, amongst them the Nouvelle Revue Française. He also began to translate the works of Shakespeare in French, which raised the interest of Jacques Copeau. Pourtalès's translation of Measure for Measure was performed by the company of Georges Pitoëff in 1920 in Geneva and in Lausanne (with music by Arthur Honegger), and his translation of The Tempest was played by the company of Firmin Gémier in 1929 in Monte Carlo and at the Odéon theater in Paris.
In 1937, he published La Pêche miraculeuse, the novel for which he is best known today and which won him the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.
Pourtalès's health had been slowly deteriorating, and when World War II broke out, he was severely ill and wouldn't leave Etoy anymore. His son Raymond (1914–1940), who served in the French army, fell in combat on 28 May 1940. The death of his only son and the surrender of France seem to have weakened Guy de Pourtalès, who died at Lausanne on 12 June 1941.
He was the son of Herman Alexander de Pourtalès (1847–1904) and his first wife, Marguerite "Daisy" Marcet (1857–1888). Guy was born in Berlin, where his father at that time was an officer in the service of the Prussian king Wilhelm I. When he was six years old, the family returned to Switzerland, where they lived first at Malagny near Versoix in the Canton of Geneva and then, after his father's second marriage (with Hélène Barbey) in 1891, at Mies in the Canton de Vaud. Guy de Pourtalès went to schools in Geneva and in Vevey and then to the gymnasium in Neuchâtel. After his matura in 1899, he studied in Germany. In Karlsruhe, he began to study Chemistry, which he abandoned soon in favor of musical studies, which he continued from 1902 to 1905 at the University of Bonn. In 1905, he moved to Paris, where he studied literature at the Sorbonne.
Guy de Pourtalès published his first novel in Paris in 1910. One year later, he married Hélène Marcuard, with whom he would have three children, and in 1912, his French nationality was restored upon his demand, since his family were Huguenots who had fled from France to Neuchâtel after the Edict of Fontainebleau revoking the Edict of Nantes. Just before World War I, his second novel appeared.
In 1914, he was drafted into service in the French army as a translator for the British troops in Flanders. At Ypres, he was gassed in 1915 and evacuated to Paris where he slowly recovered. He co-founded the Société littéraire de France, where he also published in 1917 his Deux contes de fées pour les grandes personnes ("Two fairy tales for grown-ups"). At the end of the war, he again served as a translator, this time for the American troops. After he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1919, he rented the castle of Etoy in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland in 1921 and henceforth would spend several months a year there. A large part of his literary work was written in Etoy.
From the 1920s on, Pourtalès published a series of romantic biographies of musicians and also wrote essays, critiques, and journalistic pieces for a variety of French magazines, amongst them the Nouvelle Revue Française. He also began to translate the works of Shakespeare in French, which raised the interest of Jacques Copeau. Pourtalès's translation of Measure for Measure was performed by the company of Georges Pitoëff in 1920 in Geneva and in Lausanne (with music by Arthur Honegger), and his translation of The Tempest was played by the company of Firmin Gémier in 1929 in Monte Carlo and at the Odéon theater in Paris.
In 1937, he published La Pêche miraculeuse, the novel for which he is best known today and which won him the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.
Pourtalès's health had been slowly deteriorating, and when World War II broke out, he was severely ill and wouldn't leave Etoy anymore. His son Raymond (1914–1940), who served in the French army, fell in combat on 28 May 1940. The death of his only son and the surrender of France seem to have weakened Guy de Pourtalès, who died at Lausanne on 12 June 1941.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 10, 2024
Da autoria de um autor alemão que viveu ao mesmo tempo que Friedrich Nietzsche e, tratando-se de uma biografia clássica, estava à espera de um pouco mais, reconheço.
Guy de Pourtalès não consegue sequer chegar aos calcanhares de Stefan Zweig que também escreveu uma espécie de biográfica - mais psicológica - e absolutamente brilhante sobre Nietzsche (e que recomendo vivamente).
Contudo, Pourtalès deixa-nos alguns dados novos sobre a vida de Nieztsche interessantes, tais como: poderá ter havido uma espécie de paixão platónica relativamente a Cosima Wagner, mulher de Richard Wagner, o que terá estado eventualmente na origem e/ou ter influenciado o desentendimento dos dois amigos; é uma amiga alemã, em Sorrento, Malwida von Meysenbug que aproxima e apresenta Lou Andreas-Salomé a Nietzsche na esperança de engendrar um relacionamento e futuro casamento entre ambos, mas não corre bem e esta envolve-se antes com o seu amigo Paul Rée; o pai de Nietzsche terá tido um problema cerebral aos trinta e tal anos e morrido disso (algo que a irmã do filósofo sempre tentou ocultar de todos), pelo que isso poderá (ou não) ter contribuido para a loucura de Nietzsche... com alguma predisposição genética para; depois de ficar louco é a irmã, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, que toma conta dele e das suas obras publicando ainda algumas e é, dada a proximidade desta com o Nacional-Socialismo, que justifica o facto de muitas vezes se associar as ideias de Nietzsche erradamente ao Nacional-Socialismo.
Guy de Pourtalès não consegue sequer chegar aos calcanhares de Stefan Zweig que também escreveu uma espécie de biográfica - mais psicológica - e absolutamente brilhante sobre Nietzsche (e que recomendo vivamente).
Contudo, Pourtalès deixa-nos alguns dados novos sobre a vida de Nieztsche interessantes, tais como: poderá ter havido uma espécie de paixão platónica relativamente a Cosima Wagner, mulher de Richard Wagner, o que terá estado eventualmente na origem e/ou ter influenciado o desentendimento dos dois amigos; é uma amiga alemã, em Sorrento, Malwida von Meysenbug que aproxima e apresenta Lou Andreas-Salomé a Nietzsche na esperança de engendrar um relacionamento e futuro casamento entre ambos, mas não corre bem e esta envolve-se antes com o seu amigo Paul Rée; o pai de Nietzsche terá tido um problema cerebral aos trinta e tal anos e morrido disso (algo que a irmã do filósofo sempre tentou ocultar de todos), pelo que isso poderá (ou não) ter contribuido para a loucura de Nietzsche... com alguma predisposição genética para; depois de ficar louco é a irmã, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, que toma conta dele e das suas obras publicando ainda algumas e é, dada a proximidade desta com o Nacional-Socialismo, que justifica o facto de muitas vezes se associar as ideias de Nietzsche erradamente ao Nacional-Socialismo.
May 12, 2023
Nietzsche in Italy, written by Guy de Pourtalès and translated by Will Stone, is a wonderfully readable account of Nietzsche's visits and stays in Italy, some of his most fruitful periods.
I had read a few sections before, using my rudimentary French reading skills (started by a course titled French for Reading Knowledge as an undergrad), but those had always been offered to me for specific purposes, incidents which spoke to other discussions. Having the opportunity to read it in its entirety is a pleasure and one I would recommend to anyone interested in Nietzsche, whether his thought or his life.
This is not an attempt at being comprehensive, even within the parameters set by the title. Rather, as Pourtalès says in his salutary preface to Paul Valéry, "I sought my Nietzsche." Even more than most philosophers, Nietzsche is many things to many people, and that shows not only in this biographical essay but in every biography written, even those trying to cover all aspects.
In addition to readers who already have an interest in Nietzsche, I think a lot of readers who enjoy fiction where you get to know the inner workings of the protagonist will enjoy this book. While it is nonfiction, it is absolutely about a person's ups and downs, and how events could have outsized effects on him.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I had read a few sections before, using my rudimentary French reading skills (started by a course titled French for Reading Knowledge as an undergrad), but those had always been offered to me for specific purposes, incidents which spoke to other discussions. Having the opportunity to read it in its entirety is a pleasure and one I would recommend to anyone interested in Nietzsche, whether his thought or his life.
This is not an attempt at being comprehensive, even within the parameters set by the title. Rather, as Pourtalès says in his salutary preface to Paul Valéry, "I sought my Nietzsche." Even more than most philosophers, Nietzsche is many things to many people, and that shows not only in this biographical essay but in every biography written, even those trying to cover all aspects.
In addition to readers who already have an interest in Nietzsche, I think a lot of readers who enjoy fiction where you get to know the inner workings of the protagonist will enjoy this book. While it is nonfiction, it is absolutely about a person's ups and downs, and how events could have outsized effects on him.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
July 25, 2023
First published in France in 1929 but only now translated into English, this short biography covers Nietzsche’s many visits to Italy and his relationship with and connection to the country. It was in Italy that he did much of his major writing. The author’s own empathy for his subject comes across loud and clear making the book a very “human” account of the troubled philosopher. I very much enjoyed it and learnt a lot. The very informative introduction is useful and welcome.
September 4, 2024
Interesting, this book is not much about philosophy, it is a biographical description about his time in Italy and France and a timeline of events including some of his thoughts, for those interested in this philosopher this a short and good read.
May 7, 2023
I just love about Nietzsche as much as Nietzsche himself. This is another wonderful book about his travels and philosophy.
June 29, 2023
The ending — narrating in detail Nietzsche’s decline and his final years alive — is genuinely tender.
June 29, 2023
So perfumed! Also what's up with the insistance that Nietzsche, against himself, was actually "the truest" Christian?
March 28, 2024
Burns and acts as a good primer to understanding how he wrote and why
April 29, 2023
This little "peripatetic Italian biography" of Nietzsche, written in the 1920s, is very musical - Guy de Pourtalès was a music critic - and has been carefully translated from the French by a fellow-musician, Will Stone, who has added an excellent introduction.
The writing is very florid in its style but is a marvellous evocation of a deeply troubled man who suffered all his life from physical ailments and financial problems and, perhaps most of all, his rejection by Lou Andreas Salomé, from which he seems to have never recovered. Here he is, lonely and unknown, feverishly trying to work out his ever-evolving philosophical ideas and ultimately driving himself to a terrible mental breakdown in Turin. But everywhere he goes he finds a piano, and music: his only consolation and probably the driving force in all his philosophy.
Nietzsche loathed Germanic culture, particularly as it was expressed in the cult of admirers of his former hero, Wagner, who he denounced for his bombastic music and his antisemitism. He preferred France and Italy and this book is based on the periods he spent in various parts of Italy, where he wrote most of his famous works (Ecce Homo was written in less than a month, in Turin).
This book is by turns a delight to read, and a penance because of the terrible suffering of its protagonist, but in the end one feels a great kindness for him, his passion for music, his lonely journeys, his torn clothes, his squalid lodgings. The man emerges vulnerable, almost always in terrible pain, opinionated, and nearly friendless except for the ever-loyal Peter Gast, who remained his most steadfast supporter, playing the piano for him, when he no longer could, until the end.
The book sent me back to my now old and yellowing "Viking Portable Nietzsche" edited by Walter Kaufmann , which I highly recommend.
The writing is very florid in its style but is a marvellous evocation of a deeply troubled man who suffered all his life from physical ailments and financial problems and, perhaps most of all, his rejection by Lou Andreas Salomé, from which he seems to have never recovered. Here he is, lonely and unknown, feverishly trying to work out his ever-evolving philosophical ideas and ultimately driving himself to a terrible mental breakdown in Turin. But everywhere he goes he finds a piano, and music: his only consolation and probably the driving force in all his philosophy.
Nietzsche loathed Germanic culture, particularly as it was expressed in the cult of admirers of his former hero, Wagner, who he denounced for his bombastic music and his antisemitism. He preferred France and Italy and this book is based on the periods he spent in various parts of Italy, where he wrote most of his famous works (Ecce Homo was written in less than a month, in Turin).
This book is by turns a delight to read, and a penance because of the terrible suffering of its protagonist, but in the end one feels a great kindness for him, his passion for music, his lonely journeys, his torn clothes, his squalid lodgings. The man emerges vulnerable, almost always in terrible pain, opinionated, and nearly friendless except for the ever-loyal Peter Gast, who remained his most steadfast supporter, playing the piano for him, when he no longer could, until the end.
The book sent me back to my now old and yellowing "Viking Portable Nietzsche" edited by Walter Kaufmann , which I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews