Publisher's Synopsis
Wagner was a lifelong obsession for Nietzsche. No other topic or figure more consistently and persistently appears in Nietzsche's books from beginning to end as do Wagner and his theories. For the first time, Ryan Harvey and Aaron Ridley put Wagner centre-stage in their book to show why he mattered so much to Nietzsche. Looking at both The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche Contra Wagner, they identify and define the trajectory of a number of overarching themes - modernity, decadence and Wagner as the sign of decline within Nietzsche's work as a whole - in order to demonstrate how they crystallise into Nietzsche's final and most substantial discussion of Wagner in The Case of Wagner. Assuming no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the texts, the book also offers a section-by-section interpretation of The Case of Wagner addressing especially why Wagner is a 'case' for Nietzsche.
