Rating: 
Summary: Kaufmann's BGE is the best translation I have found
Review: This is a book which shows again the weakness of having to include a 1-10 along with a review. Kaufmann makes no secret of his wish to 'rehabilitate' Nietzsche, pointing out errors in previous translation and interpretation as well as constructing defenses against those ideas of Nietzsche which the modern reader may find difficult to countenance. As far as the text goes, however, Kaufmann again and again shows his tremendous knowledge of and love for the german language and Nietzsche in particular.
Reading this along with Kierkegaard, Ibsen, Strindberg, Stendahl, and a few other 19th century authors is a tremendous experience in the archaeology of twentieth century ideas. Above all, it is a wonderful wringing out of one's brain to find a thinker with such obvious blind spots yet such tremendous drive towards the essentials of one's thoughts and thought processes.
All I can say about reading it is to remember that style, ideas, flow, tempo, irony, sarcasm, humor- everything is of equal 'importance' in understanding what Nietzsche is conveying. Perhaps because even at the time of BGE he had little audience for his writing, Nietzsche seems to write with little effort to restrict himself to one method of exposition- sometimes it seems as if the point of whole passages is to make you follow them carefully and seriously only to reach a point where you can treat the ideas in them lightly and with humor. Well, read it
Rating: 
Summary: interesting
Review: THis book is interesting. Nietszche was a a poetic writer. Easier to understand than zarathrusta. Worth reading just to see a unique thinker i suppose. You certainly don't have to agree with him.
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Summary: Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good & evil
Review: If you've come in search of an important thinker in the history of philosophy, you've come to the right place. If you're looking for the finest of all Nietzsche's works, either as a place to start or as a next step on your voyage through his thoughts, you've come to the right place. If you want the best translation of that all important book, you've come to the right place.
As an aside, I find it amusing that there now is a vide game on Playstation 2 called Beyond Good and Evil. From all appearances (I haven't actually played the video game) it appears to have nothing to do with the thinking of Nietzsche or with the meaning of the title, which I tried to put in context, with the aphorism in which it appears in the book as the title of this review.
This book is no game. The ideas this book contains have proved themselves to be quite explosive and dangerous. Even at the time of its composition, especially as Nietzsche carefully unmasks the Prejudices of Philosophers, attacking the foundations of philosophers more effectively and poignantly than any of the more recent postmodern followers, like Derrida and Foucault. Nietzsche also shows his command of language and his poetry (which Kaufmann translates very well), especially in the long series of short aphorisms in the middle section of the book entitled Epigrams and Interludes. This is the section that you will find yourself turning over and over again trying to understand.
The latter half of the book, though, falls more and more into Nietzsche's weaknesses: his comments on women (which do tend toward misogyny) and his comments on various races and cultures. On the other hand, I did once think that it could be true that Nietzsche's thoughts would contribute to German megalomantic desire to take over the world, until I read Hegel and listened to the music of Wagner. With a philosopher who thought that Germany was the culmination of world history, he far outshines Nietzsche's mixed opinion of the German race. And Wagner is the sound of this sentiment.
But that is a side note. Read this book. It's thought provoking. It's deeper and more difficult than it may at first appear. But it is brilliant.
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Summary: Beyond Neitzsche
Review: 1) One does not go beyond good and evil to do greater good- but rather to free oneself to do evil. Who then are the true spiritual heirs of Neitzsche?
2) There are sick souls whose pain is turned into a beautiful irony - but this does not make them any less sick souls.
3)What is the point of hating re-sentiment morality so much? Had the Christians only been one small part as kind as they pretended to be the Jews would have had to ask them to turn the other cheek.
4) A man who hates women is not a man
5) The will to power is not the single unifying motive of mankind, but one central one among many
6) The mass of mankind is more varied than is dreamnt of in Neitzsche's philosophy.
7) Will the superman be able to compete with an ' enhanced machine-mind programmed to create newer and newer philosophic insights?
8) Rare and bold and great and surprising are the best aphorisms of Neitzsche. And some might argue that his aphorisms are the best that have ever been. But style alone is not enough to bring the world to a real answer.
9) One must pity a great mind overthrown and the suffering this entailed.
10) No one prays to Neitzsche's thought . Many still pray to G-d.
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Summary: A DISSERTATION UNDER THE MASK OF APHORISMS AND CITATIONS
Review: After his "Zarathustra" and "Ecce Homo" this MASTERPIECE is very probably the most read book that is signed with the unique pen of Friedrich NIETZSCHE. We can define the ESSENCE of this work as a radical form of criticism towards modernity. With the well known fury of this master - and his so particular style, "HIS" way of writing and thinking - he opposes and attacks "modern" science, politics and arts, without even the slightest bit of mercy. However "HIS TIME", people of that period were so proud (even still today) of that modernity. CONCEPTS like "scientific objectivity", "sympathy" and "ethic responsability" are minutely dissected here and "downsized" to their REAL ORIGIN: THE WILL FOR POWER.
It was in fact Nietzsche's intention, even his deepest wish that the book would be read as a programmatical discourse with which he tried to reach his spiritual "relatives", the "free" spirits, PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE, who saw Nietzsche as "one of them", or rather: wanted to see him as their spiritual leader and guide.
This quite "special book" is built, constructed in 296 paragraphs (some only a few lines some several pages) and can be seen as the PENDANT of his "ZARATHUSTRA", which he had accomplished the year before and in which the author made his first attempt to resume his way of philosophical reasoning and thinking. As "Thus spake Zarathustra" excells in symbolism and literary presentation, his "Beyond Good And Evil" is famous thanks to the numerous concise aphorisms than can extremely well be cited, quoted again and again, above all with an extraordinary ease.
THIS IS LITERATURE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY AND RANKING, very well readable for all human beings (sic!!!). What is more: this wonderful, magnificent book STAYS being read and re-read all over again. Very much so because of THE SPLENDID APHORISMS AND QUOTATIONS. IT IS AN UNEQUALLED, UNFORGETTABLE WORK IN ITS GENRE. A GREAT AND TRUE PLEASURE TO READ ... FOR EVERYBODY.
RECOMMENDED MASTERPIECE TO ALL OF YOU: TO BE READ HOWEVER WITHOUT CHEAP PREJUDICES.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing is Easy with Nietzsche!
Review: This book contains a series of aphorisms ranging from a couple of lines to a couple of pages. As such, it is easy to pick and choose things that interest you. The problem is that Nietzsche wrote the aphorisms in a deliberate order, so looking at one passage in isolation is an express route to misunderstanding. This is especially true with respect to the sections that discuss Women and Jews. I found that I had the best success in understanding the book when I ignored the footnotes (they usually refer to German translation issues that are lost on non-German speakers) and simply plowed through several sections at a time. I think this work really sheds some light on the issues facing the European Union today. Nietzsche had an interesting perspective on the differences among Europeans and his observations are quite relevant to the struggle to unify the continent.
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Summary: "Supposing truth is a woman--what then?"
Review: Looking at the society of 19th century Europe, Nietzsche saw people conditioned from birth into dualistic ways of thinking which were imparted via Christianity, that exoteric reimagining of Platonism. Nietzsche found the dualism that permeated into every aspect of thought to be problematic (to put it mildly), and sets a task for the "free spirits" of this world (or the philosophers of the future), to get beyond this original split. To get beyond it is to get beyond good and evil and find a new way of talking about Truth. This in a nutshell is the impetus behind the writing of this book.
Nietzsche here puts forth his theories of the overman and the will to power, demonstrating how it is possible to effect a change in one's thinking that will in turn lead one to act in such a way as to acquire power over one's environment. All this life-changing wisdom, of course, transcribed in that exaggerated, offensive style which is characteristic of Nietzsche's writings.
This book has been known to anger many a Christian, so if you're a Christian and you want a reason to be angry, this is a worthy place to direct your attentions.
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Summary: Reading for those on the go
Review: I thought the book was okay, but I'm not sure I understand the title, 'The Portable Nietzsche.' Is there a book on Nietzsche that is stationary? How would a publisher get it into a book store in the first place? And how would someone go about actually purchasing a book like that? Would you have to drive to the printers and stand there thumbing through it until you were finished? Wouldn't that be prohibitively expensive for the publisher, unless there were a lot of speed readers interested in reading the book? And even then, would they really be buying the book or merely renting it, if they couldn't even take it home? And how would the printer feel about complete strangers hanging around reading a book till all hours of the day and night? Who in gods name would be dumb enough to buy a book they couldn't take home with them? Outside of Oklahoma or Arkansas, homes are about the only thing you can buy that aren't portable. The books I've read were all quite portable. I can't remember how many times I've taken a book off the shelf of a book store, paid for it, took it home, put it on my own bookshelf where I would later remove it and start reading it. I'm going to have to write Penguin books and ask them just what they were thinking when they came up with that title. What a bunch of idiots.
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