“This brilliant and vivid biography invites us to rediscover Schopenhauer as not just a pessimist, but as a daring and original thinker who confronted life’s hardest question: Is it worth living? With clarity, wit, and philosophical depth, Bather Woods explores how Schopenhauer’s ideas continue to resonate with the challenges we face today.”

Emily Herring, author of 'Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People'

“In the style of Andrea Wulf and Sue Prideaux, Bather Woods brings to life the world of ideas that allowed, and forced, Arthur Schopenhauer to become who he was: proto-existentialist, pessimist par excellence, fierce realist. Bather Woods’s portrait is bracing and honest—a call to see the world as it is rather than how we imagine it to be and an invitation to know ourselves, warts and all.”

John Kaag, author of 'Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are'

“In Arthur Schopenhauer, Bather Woods provides a compassionate and philosophically sharp portrait of the great pessimist. Bather Woods teases out several threads in Schopenhauer’s thought that others have overlooked as he shows how Schopenhauer’s struggles and (abundant) personal flaws helped him see to the heart of the human condition. This book offers a humanizing introduction for readers new to Schopenhauer and a distinctive and subtle rereading of his thought for specialists."

Colin Marshall, University of Washington

“The time is ripe for a reevaluation of Arthur Schopenhauer, and I can’t imagine a better guide to his life and work than Bather Woods who, like his subject, writes with enviable clarity and wit and wears his scholarship lightly. Schopenhauer may have been somewhat gloomy in outlook, but this book is a joy to read.”

Nigel Warburton, author of A Little History of Philosophy

"After, clearly, a long immersion in Schopenhauer’s life, [Bather Woods] brings him forth as a living, breathing figure for whom, in spite of the sexism, racism, conservatism and general gloom, one can feel considerable affection. Abandoning strict chronology, the book has a sophisticated literary structure and is extremely well written. It will delight."

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