# The French — Beyond Good and Evil character guide

> The French in Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.

**Role:** minor

**Also known as:** the French, The French

**First appearance:** 0002-i-prejudices-of-philosophers

## Who they are

A national character contrasted with the Germans in matters of intellect and taste.

## In the story

### [Chapter 38](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/38)

Implicitly referenced as the agents of the French Revolution, the 'terrible farce' which is the subject of historical misinterpretation.

### [Chapter 48](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/48)

Presented as a Latin/Celtic race with a deep, racial attachment to Catholicism, producing skeptics who remain fundamentally pious and un-German in spirit.

### [The Geography of Will and the Skeptic's Sedative](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/208)

Identified as having the most infirm will, yet masterfully converting spiritual crises into the charming 'school' of skepticism.

### [Chapter 210](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/210)

Their Positivists, along with Germans, are noted as approving the view of philosophy as merely critical science.

### [Two Kinds of Geniuses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/248)

Identified as a nation of the receptive, formative genius type, tasked with 'forming, maturing, and perfecting.'

### [The European Problem and the Jewish Question](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/251)

Referenced alongside Italians and English as having a 'stronger digestion' for assimilating Jews, in contrast to the Germans.

### [Chapter 253](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/253)

Described as the 'apes and actors' of English-originated modern ideas, and as the first victims of this Anglomania, which thinned their soul. However, France is credited as the true source of European 'noblesse' in sentiment, taste, and manners.

### [Chapter 254](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/254)

The primary subject of analysis. The chapter distinguishes the concealed, refined 'France of taste' from the 'besotted and brutalized' democratic bourgeois France sprawled in the foreground.

### [IX: What Is Noble?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/ix-what-is-noble)

Referenced as an example of a corrupt aristocracy at the beginning of the Revolution, which abdicated its privileges out of a sublime disgust, representing a closing act of long-term decay.

### [Corruption and the Aristocratic Foundation](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/258)

Referenced via the French aristocracy at the beginning of the Revolution, which exhibited a corrupt, self-sacrificing disgust for its own privileges.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/characters/french
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/characters