A Short Life of Kierkegaard (ebook)

Argumento de A Short Life of Kierkegaard (ebook)

A small, insignificant-looking intellectual with absurdly long legs, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a veritable Hans Christian Andersen caricature of a man. A strange combination of witty cosmopolite and melancholy introvert, he spent years writing under a series of fantastical pseudonyms, lavishing all the splendor of his magnificent mind on a seldom-appreciative world. He had a tragic love affair with a young girl, was dominated by an unforgettable Old Testament father, fought a sensational literary duel with a popular satiric magazine, and died in the midst of a violent quarrel with the state church for which he had once studied theology. Yet this iconoclast produced a number of brilliant books that have profoundly influenced modern thought.

In this classic biography, the celebrated Kierkegaard translator Walter Lowrie presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. Lowrie tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought. The result is a wonderfully informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the past two centuries. This edition also includes Lowrie's wry essay "How Kierkegaard Got into English," which tells the improbable story of how Lowrie became one of Kierkegaard's principal English translators despite not learning Danish until he was in his 60s, as well as a new introduction by Kierkegaard scholar Alastair Hannay.

"A magnificent portrait."--Christian Century0Introduction by Alastair Hannay ix
Preface xxiii
Background 3
Childhood 31
Early Youth - 1830 to 1834 55
The Great Earthquake - Twenty-second birthday 67
At the Cross Roads - 1835 79
The Path of Perdition- 1836 92
Groping His Way Back - May 1836 to May 1838 104
Father and Son United - Twenty-five years of age 118
The Great Parenthesis - August 1838 to July 1840 128
Regina - September 1840 to October 1841 135
The Aesthetic Works 1841 to 1845 144
The Postscript - 1846 166
The Affair of the Corsair - 1846- 176
Thirty-four Years Old - 1847 188
The Edifying Discourses - 1843 - 1855 196
Metamorphosis - 1848 201
Venturing Far Out - 1849 to 1851 210
Holding Out - 1852 to 1854 222
Godly Satire - 1854/55 239
Death and Burial - October 2 to November 18, 1855 253
Kierkegaard's Last Words 257
Kierkegaard's Works in English 261
How Kierkegaard Got into English 265
Index 289