The Essential Schopenhauer: Key Selections from The World As Will and Representation and Other Writings

“We should be grateful to Schopenhauer for managing to express the truth about life so beautifully.” — Alain De Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy

The Essential Schopenhauer delivers the first comprehensive English anthology of the seminal philosopher’s writings, edited by Wolfgang Schirmacher, president of the International Schopenhauer Association.

This indispensable collection affords readers a uniquely accessible gateway into the monolithic thinker’s prodigious body of work. Just as the Harper Perennial Basic Writings series renders the work of Heidegger and Nietzsche accessible for English readers, The Essential Schopenhauer gives us unprecedented access to the complex ideas of this profound and influential thinker.

A new, comprehensive English anthology

What is the meaning of life? How should I live? Is there any purpose to the universe? Generations have turned to the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer for answers to such essential questions of existence. His influence has extended not only to later philosophers—Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein among them—but also to musicians, artists, and important novelists such as Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Proust.

The Essential Schopenhauer, the most comprehensive English anthology now available of this seminal thinker’s writings, will open English readers to Schopenhauer’s profound ideas. Selected by Wolfgang Schirmacher, president of the International Schopenhauer Association, The Essential Schopenhauer is an invaluable and accessibleintroduction to Schopenhauer’s powerful body of work.

“Unquestionably one of the most profound and penetrating intellects.” - New York Times

“A great philosopher” - The Guardian

“Schopenhauer’s philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life’s meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts.” - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

“Schopenhauer’s beautiful, exceptionally dark philosophy liberates us from the intolerable burden placed upon us by our contemporary optimism. The Essential Schopenhauer is a book to turn to when all others have failed.” - Alain de Botton, bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy and How Proust Can Change Your Life