A sick old man determines the day of his death and the means by which he will end his ‘noble’ existence. On his last day, he tells the story of his ‘noble’ past, and of his philosophy as a noble.

The story is told in a nightmarish tone with the dramatic, clear and driving voice of a passionate protagonist who believes he has led an authentic life – one that is true to the person that he is: the life of a noble. He alone has given meaning to his existence and he disparages both religion and science. He lives and he dies; there is nothing more than this, and the time while he lives is his own – to make of it what he will – and he has ‘willed himself to power’. Yet has he been a protagonist within the story that he relates, or is he simply delusional?

The novel explores the Nietzsche ‘noble’ through the thoughts and experiences – real and imaginable – of the old man. It is an exploration of the theatre of the absurd, which is also the playground of the human species in a certain time and context. The time is the century after the passing away of the much acclaimed writer, Nietzsche, and the context is Europe: that continent of civility, modernism and post-modernism, developing technology, human diversity, industrialisation and individual liberty. But a continent also of nihilistic ambition and state repression, and of states with the greater capacity to mass destruct: a continent in almost perpetual conflict, and a civilisation increasingly uncertain of what meaning to give to life.

“This book was inspired by an interest in recent European political history and ideas. I wanted to write an account from the perspective of a significant participant (or one who believes he has been) – taking a certain personality type with a certain set of ideas and linked to an interpretation of the writings of Nietzsche,” says S. J. Ashworth.

S. J. Ashworth is a teacher, traveller and entrepreneur. He was educated in Preston, London and at Exeter University. He spent 20 years teaching in private and higher education in the UK, Spain and Poland.