Why I Am so Clever

Gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was born near Leipzig in 1844. When he was only twenty-four he was appointed to the chair of classical philology at Basel University. Works published in the 1880s include The Gay Science , Thus Spoke Zarathustra , Beyond Good and Evil , On the Genealogy of Morals , Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist . In January 1889, Nietzsche collapsed on a street in Turin and was subsequently institutionalized, spending the rest of his life in a condition of mental and physical paralysis. Works published after his death in 1900 include Will to Power , based on his notebooks, and Ecce Homo , his autobiography.