Twilight of the Idols and the Antichrist

<p>Books for everybody are always malodorous books: the smell of petty people clings to them scoffed Friedrich Nietzsche. These two works <i>Twilight of the Idols</i> and <i>The Antichrist</i> crowned the radical philosopher's career of writing books that are decidedly not for everyone. Written in 1888 while Nietzsche was at the height of his brilliance -- but shortly before the onset of the insanity that gripped him until his death in 1900 -- they blaze with provocative inflammatory rhetoric.<br>Nietzsche's grand declaration of war <i>Twilight of the Idols</i> examines what we worship and why. Intended by the author as a general introduction to his philosophy it assails idols of Western philosophy and culture (Socratic rationality and Christian morality among them) and sets the scene for <i>The Antichrist</i>. In addition to its full-scale attack on Christianity and Jesus Christ <i>The Antichrist</i> denounces organized religion as a whole. H. L. Mencken declared that it is to many sensitive men in the worst possible taste but at bottom it is enormously apt and effective -- on the surface it is undoubtedly a good show. Students of philosophy history and German literature will find these works essential to an understanding of Nietzschean philosophy.</p>