Description
Book SynopsisKnowledge of Nietzsche's writings came late to England, but his works, since they were known, provoked in the literary and sometimes even the daily press a strong partisan reaction ranging from fawning praise to caricature and denunciation. Real knowledge of Nietzschean thought based on a sound understanding of the major works was slow is developing. It is this development that Dr. Thatcher traces in his lucid and scholarly study.
Through English literary works and critical periodcials of the imperial fin de siècleand the pre-war years we see Nietzsche's ideas pass from notoriety to increasingly sympathetic acceptance. The author studies in detail Nietzsche's influence on five writers -- John Davidson, Havelock Ellis, A.R. Orage (editor of New Age), George Bernard Shaw, and W.B. Yeats. The chapter on Yeats stands at the heart of the book and suggests that Yeats rather than Shaw was the chief beneficiary of the Nietzsche movement in England. Nietzsche's influence on writ
