This book is logically impossible to rate. As Nietzsche's first major writing, The Birth of Tragedy strays from Nietzsche's main ideology he develops later in life. This edition of the book has Nietzsche's second preface to The Birth of Tragedy, "An Attempt at Self-Criticism" in which he criticizes his own writing in The Birth of Tragedy yet defends it as a readable work. This in itself is extraordinarily hard to dissect, since Nietzsche is an unreliable narrator, and has a very self-absorbed persona. There is no question that he things The Birth of Tragedy is poor: at this time in his life he still sees himself as a peer or student of Richard Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer—this will change.

The other essays included, "The Dionysiac Worldview" and "Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense" are very different from each other, yet are both related to the ideas of The Birth of Tragedy; "The Dionysiac Worldview" can even be seen as a precursor to "The Birth of Tragedy." However, "Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense," itself a short essay, seems characteristically different from the others, as Nietzsche demonstrates greater autonomy in his literate character. This is perhaps more the case, as he is moving away from the Classics, a study which he has forced upon himself to his own detriment. ( )