Work · Life & Existential Philosophy
The Gay Science
“God is dead” – and the first formulation of the eternal recurrence.
Introduction
The first edition of 1882 consisted of four books of numbered aphorisms with a prelude of rhymes; in 1887 Nietzsche added a fifth book, a new preface and an appendix of poems. The title alludes to the Provençal “gai saber”, the art of the troubadours. Section 108 announces for the first time that God is dead; section 125 stages the madman who searches for God in the marketplace with a lantern and tells the bystanders that we have killed him. Section 341 presents eternal recurrence as a thought experiment, and section 342 introduces Zarathustra. The book marks the transition from Nietzsche’s “free spirit” writings to his later work.
Read the full text
Free full text, often an older edition or translation
Connections
Taken up in
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra1883 · Friedrich Nietzsche
Answered in
- Religion and Nothingness1961 · Nishitani Keiji
More works by Friedrich Nietzsche
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made