The Antichrist

This book belongs to the most rare of men. Perhaps not one of them is yet alive. It is possible that they may be among those who understand my “Zarathustra”: how could I confound myself with those who are now sprouting ears?—First the day after tomorrow must come for me. Some men are born posthumously.

Save for his raucous, rhapsodical autobiography, “Ecce Homo,” “The Antichrist” is the last thing that Nietzsche ever wrote, and so it may be accepted as a statement of some of his most salient ideas in their final form. Notes for it had been accumulating for years and it was to have constituted the first volume of his long-projected magnum opus, “The Will to Power.” His full plan for this work, as originally drawn up, was as follows:

VOL. I: THE ANTICHRIST: AN ATTEMPT AT A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY

VOL. II: THE FREE SPIRIT: A CRITICISM OF PHILOSOPHY AS A NIHILISTIC MOVEMENT

VOL. III: THE IMMORALIST: A CRITICISM OF MORALITY, THE MOST FATAL FORM OF IGNORANCE

VOL. IV: DIONYSUS: THE PHILOSOPHY OF ETERNAL RECURRENCE