Although Schopenhauer was only 30 years old when he published his most important work, The World as Will and Idea, he did not receive the attention he deserved until much later in life. It took nearly three decades before anyone took serious notice of his work. Like Hume, who had lamented that his own work had 'fallen stillborn from the press,' Schopenhauer was deeply hurt that his masterpiece was ignored. It did, however, help him to get a teaching position at the University of Berlin in the same department as Hegel, the most famous and talked-about philosopher of the time, whom Schopenhauer both envied and despised.
How much of Schopenhauer's distaste of Hegel was the result merely of envy and jealousy, and how much from his substantive criticisms of Hegel's views, is a matter of controversy. However, he did write, "The minds of the present generation of scholars are disorganized by Hegelian nonsense, incapable of thinking, coarse and stupefied, they become prey to the shallow materialism that has crept out of the basilisk's egg." Schopenhauer tried in vain to compete with his departmental colleague Hegel by scheduling his own lectures at the same time as Hegel's; as a result, hardly anyone attended Schopenhauer's classes, whereas Hegel's were packed, standing room only. Meanwhile, Hegel's philosophy grew ever more popular throughout Germany, dominating European thought. Schopenhauer was outraged: "Hegel, installed from above by the powers that be as the certified Great Philosopher, was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan, who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense."
In 1844, at the age of 56, Schopenhauer published an expanded revision of The World as Will and Idea. Much to his surprise, this time it drew great attention. Already by then in his sixties, suddenly he found himself at the center of a rapidly growing international following of devoted philosophers, psychologists, writers, and musicians who found him deeply inspirational and profound. His reputation quickly spread by word of mouth. Some of his most famous and devoted adherents included Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, and Sigmund Freud.
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