Ludwig Wittgenstein has somehow captured the popular imagination as the modern Socrates, the fascinating and attractive master of enigmatic logic. But what did Wittgenstein really say? This book introduces a strange man, the rigorous logician who prized poetry above philosophy, who inherited an immense fortune and gave it all away, who sought death in the trenches of World War I, a great teacher who advised his students to give up philosophy, a tormented soul who thrived on jokes and crime fiction and a solitary who inspired lifelong friendships. This is also a guide to his central work, the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", an apparent glacier of logic, and his later, friendlier "Philosophical Investigations". Anyone baffled by the complexity of these works or intrigued by Wittgenstein's reputation but too daunted to read him should find this book a useful introduction.