Introduction

Nietzsche wrote this book in a period when his health had improved a little and his mood was bright. Its title comes from the 'gay science' of the medieval Provençal troubadours, the art of poetry. It consists of several hundred aphorisms and short essays, with a prelude in rhymes and an appendix of songs. Several of Nietzsche's most famous ideas appear here for the first time. In section 125, 'The Madman', a madman runs into the marketplace in broad daylight with a lantern, crying 'I seek God!', and announces: 'God is dead! We have killed him, you and I!' In section 341, 'The Greatest Weight', a demon steals into your loneliest loneliness and tells you that your life will recur, exactly the same, for ever: the first statement of eternal recurrence. Section 342 marks Zarathustra's first appearance. Nietzsche called it 'the most personal of all my books'.