Nietzsche's Enlightenment : the Free-Spirit Trilogy of the Middle Period.

Franco (Bowdoin College) explores the middle period of Nietzsche's work in an attempt to show how his "free-spirit" trilogy (Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, The Gay Science) relates to and ushers in the viewpoints of Nietzsche's mature works (Beyond Good and Evil, The Genealogy of Morals, Thus Spake Zarathustra, The Will to Power). Franco's interpretation is distinguished from those who treat the more scientific and rationalist Nietzsche of the middle period as superior to the mature Nietzsche, and postmodernists who attempt to deconstruct both the author and his works. Franco ably shows how the mature Nietzsche evolves from the middle Nietzsche and how the scientific and rationalist aspects of the middle period condition and constrain some of the apparent excesses of the mature works. A valuable aspect of this book is Franco's translation and use of relevant passages from Nietzsche's notes to illuminate the meaning and ramifications of Nietzsche's murky doctrine of the eternal return. Given its developmental focus, the book is recommended for graduate and senior undergraduate students. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. W. J. Coats Connecticut College