Читать книгу Thus Spoke Zarathustra - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Friedrich Nietzsche - Страница 15

Zarathustra is comprised of four parts and a prologue. Zarathustra I was published in August 1883 in a print run of 1,000 copies.⁸ The book, and its subsequent parts, sold even more poorly than his previous works. He designated it a poetic work, and it departed in style and content from his earlier writings.

Before Zarathustra I was even published, Nietzsche was working on a second part. In the summer of 1883, during a three‐month stay in Sils, Nietzsche completed Zarathustra II within two weeks, in July 1883. He sent the manuscript to his publisher and received page proofs in September 1883. It too was printed in a run of 1,000 copies.

He was now busy at work on Zarathustra III. He completed the manuscript no later than January 1884, and it appeared in April, once again in a run of 1,000 copies. The design and format of all three volumes were the same – in blue card covers with red ink. The title page listed the book's title and publisher within a lined marginal border. The only distinction between volumes was the inclusion of a number to indicate the respective parts.

In February 1885, Nietzsche announced to a friend that he had completed a fourth (and final) part. Unlike the other three, he self‐published the final part. It was printed in a limited run of just forty‐five copies, and he distributed nine of them to select friends in April 1885. It is unclear what happened to the remaining stock.

All four parts of Zarathustra are today printed together as a single volume, and there is a unity that underlies them. But it is important to keep in mind that the fourth part came as a later addition not intended for the public, while the first three published parts represented a finished whole.