Soren Kierkegaard (ebook)

Argumento de Soren Kierkegaard (ebook)

"Garff devotes much attention to what Kierkegaard's contemporaries thought of him and his writings. Kierkegaard was not the obscure, lonely writer that he himself would have one believe. This is a wonderful book for readers interested in Kierkegaard. It is very well written, well translated, and well organized."--Choice

"Kierkegaard is an intellectual hero of the highest order, and Joakim Garff is his poet. Brilliantly translated from the Danish by Bruce Kirmmse, Søren Kierkegaard serves as a Baedeker to the Copenhagen that Kierkegaard both loved and cursed."--Gordon Marino, Artforum International

"As this brilliant new biography by Joakim Garff makes clear, [Kierkegaard] never thought of himself as a philosopher. . . . The appearance of Garff's biography in English is a momentous occasion. . . . He provides a dazzling account of Kierkegaard's comings and goings, his anxieties and hopes, and, above all, his invention of himself as the Kierkegaard that both his time and ours have come to know."--Henry Carrington, Washington Post Book World

Praise for the orignial, Danish edition: "Joakim Garff tells stories with the passion and artistic effects of a novelist. . . . [He] places Kierkegaard in Copenhagen's Golden Age with such a wealth of personalities, topography, and atmosphere that this might be one of the best books ever written about the Golden Age. . . . This publication . . . will be discussed all over the world. It is a great book, really great."--Politiken

"Monumental. . . . Garff's informal voice enlists us in the village of gossip of Kierkegaard's time. . . . [H]is tone helps create a sense of excitement, of caring, of importance, of--locally and cosmically--scandal."--John Updike, The New Yorker

Praise for the orignial, Danish edition: "What rises from these pages is nothing less than a fully developed portrait of one of the most terrible and terribly fascinating beings in the history of Danish culture. . . . No more entertaining and enlightening novel will appear than Joakim Garff's grand biography of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard."--Information

"Garff aims [to challenge] those concerned with Kierkegaard's theological and philosophical views to think about the life that produced the teachings."--Richard Crouter, The Christian Century

Praise for the orignial, Danish edition: "Seven hundred extraordinarily exciting pages. . . . Joakim Garff's book about Søren Kierkegaard is not just a biography. It is a well thought-out synthesis of Kierkegaard's life and writings so exceptional . . . so concrete and rich with perspectives, that it has no equal in literature. Read, read, read."--Weekendavisen

"Garff . . . obviously has been marinating in Kierkegaard for years. . . . His beautifully written and translated biography is scholarship at its best, filled with witty observations, felicitous turns of phrase, and sharp analyses."--Heller McAlpin, The Christian Science Monitor

"Garff has a novelist's ability to make great capital from small details, and as a biography in the most straightforward sense--the story of a life - the book is hard to beat. It is a real page-turner."--John Lippitt, The Times Higher Education Supplement

"In its historical scope and in the richness of its descriptions, Garff's Søren Kierkegaard sets a new standard for Kierkegaard scholarship. It has done more to help us understand Kierkegaard's social milieu than any other biography."--Gregory R. Beabout, First Things

"Although some will accuse Garff of revealing salacious details of the philosopher's life--as in the chapters on Kierkegaard's relationship with his fiancee Regine Olsen--this monumental and magisterial biography offers fresh glimpses into the sometimes-tortured life and work of this true philosophical genius."--Publishers Weekly

"This is an epic book, and truly a biography of the work as well as the man. . . . This book is a marvelous achievement."--David Wheatley, The Irish Times

"For any reader of Kierkegaard, this book will have a theatrical effect. It is as though one has been listening to a long soliloquy: suddenly the curtain goes up and there is golden-age Denmark. The 'soliloquy' is now embedded in a vibrant and multi-faceted conversation. The book is written with confidence and verve; it has been beautifully translated into English by Bruce H. Kirmmse. If you are capable of being absorbed by the life of one who did little but think and suffer privately, this is an 816-page page-turner."--Jonathan Lear, Times Literary Supplement

"The royal road to Kierkegaard is still the oblique road--his own writings--but Garff's biography makes an excellent traveling companion."--Richard Polt, Village Voice

"A superb portrait of the philosopher that offers drama, psychological insight and social history as well as a guide to his profound, if perplexing, ideas. . . . An assiduous researcher, Mr. Garff has been studying his subject for decades. Happily, he seems to possess something of Kierkegaard's divine ability to express deep insights into human nature with a subtle and aristocratic touch. His masterly biography is a page-turning story and a guide wire into the mind of a philosopher whose ideas, properly understood, will never lose their force or fall out of fashion."--Gordon Marino, The Wall Street Journal

"I shall not hesitate to recommend this welcome book to my students as a textbook to help them acquire the necessary background for understanding Kierkegaard's multifarious, epoch-making authorship."--Jacob Golomb, European Legacy

"No one ever played the misunderstood genius with the grandiose abandon of Søren Kierkegaard. . . . In his well-documented, entertaining, sympathetic life, Professor Garff helps readers understand a man who was in many respects his own worst enemy. No wonder Kierkegaard preferred being misunderstood."--Edward Short, Crisis

Praise for the orignial, Danish edition: "A masterpiece in the genre of biography. It makes history. It will be read as a popular book of the highest merit. . . . [Garff] makes it outrageously exciting to read every last detail."--Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten

"This is a book worthy of its subject--artful, comprehensive, paradoxical, informative. . . . [A] host of . . . questions will be discussed with renewed enthusiasm as a result of this magnificent biography."--Ralph McInerny, Theological Studies

"There can be no doubt of [Joakim] Garff's success, and for once the adjective 'magisterial' seems fully appropriate."--Frank Day, Magill's Literary Annual

"Joakim Garff . . . has succeeded, not only in making Kierkegaard and his Copenhagen milieu live vigorously in this truly momentous book, but also in gripping the reader's attention. . . . A huge book about an eccentric philosopher turns out to be an enthralling and exciting read."--Alison Ainley, The Philosophers' Magazine0Maps xiii
Preface xvii
Foreword to the English-Language Edition xxiii
Translator's Preface and Acknowledgments xxv

Part One: 1813-1834

The Little Fork 7
Warping 12
Søren Sock 17
Two Weddings and a Fire 22
Studiosus Severinus 26
Alma Mater 29
Underground Copenhagen 32
The Black Sheep 37

1835

The Still Voices of the Dead 47
The Summer of 1835 in Gilleleje 50
"To Find the Idea for Which I Am Willing to Live and Die" 56

1836
<\P>

"A Somersault into the Siberia of Freedom of the Press" 60
Within the Heibergs? Charmed Circle 67
Studiosus Faustus 74
The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars 80
Poul Martin Møller 86
"Sketches of Moral Nature"-Affectation and Self-Deception 89
"Backstage Practice" 95

1837
<\P>

Storm and Stress? 102
Maria 111
Bringing Gloom to Rented Rooms 115
"Dear Emil!! You, My Friend, the Only One" 118
Reading Binge 122

1838
<\P>

"There Is an Indescribable Joy" 126
Death of a Merchant 128
"The Great Earthquake" 131
From the Papers of One Still Living 138

1839
<\P>

The Rich Young Man 147
The Translator 150
"My Reading for the Examinations Is the Longest Parenthesis" 152
A Dandy on a Pilgrimage 154

Part Two: 1840
<\P>

Regine-in Memoriam 173
Miss O. 175
From the Papers of One Already Dead 178
The Time of Terrors 185
"She Chooses the Shriek, I Choose the Pain" 190

1841
<\P>

On the Concept of Irony 192

1842
<\P>

Stark Naked in Berlin 199
"The Aesthetic Is Above All My Element" 204
The Incidental Tourist 206

1843
<\P>

Either/Or 214
"A Monster of a Book" 218
Literary Exile 224
Spiritual Eroticism 226
Regine's Nod 228
Berlin Again 229
Repetition 232
"Long Live the Post Horn!" 236
To Become Oneself Again Is to Become Someone Else 239
Reality Intervenes 243
1:50 247
The Retracted Text 248
Fear and Trembling 252
Abraham and the Knife: Agnete and Farinelli 258
"A Crevice through Which the Infinite Peeped Out" 261

1844
<\P>

The Concept of Anxiety 266
Captivating Anxiety-Pages from a Seducer's Textbook 270
The Seduction's Diary 277
Oh, to Write a Preface 281
Reviews 284
Israel Levin 288
"Come Over and See Me for a Bit" 292
To Have Faith Is Always to Expect the Joyous, the Happy, the Good 295

1845
<\P>

"Big Enough to Be a Major City" 301
"I Came Close to Dancing with Them" 305
"People Bath" 308
"Yes, of Course, I Am an Aristocrat-" 316
"I Think Grundtvig Is Nonsense" 318
Kierkegaard in Church 325
"People Think I'm a Hack Writer" 332
Stages on Life's Way 337
The Inserted Passages 340
Writing Samples 353
Exit Heiberg 357
Postscript: Kierkegaard 361

Part Three: 1846
<\P>

Victor Eremita's Admirers 375
The Corsair-"A Devil of a Paper" 376
Comic Composition and Goldschmidt's Flashy Jacket 379
"I Am a Jew. What Am I Doing among You?" 382
Malice in a Macintosh: Peder Ludvig Møller 386
"A Visit to Sorø" 390
"Would Only That I Might Soon Appear in The Corsair" 393
The Corsair's Salvo 395
Møller's Postscript to Kierkegaard's Postscript 402
Admiration and Envy: When One Word Leads to Another 405
The Squint-Eyed Hunchback 408
The Great Reversal 411
"The School of Abuse" 414
The Neighbors across the Way 418
"S. Kjerkegaard and His Reviewers" 422
"This Sweat-Soaked, Stifling Cloak of Mush That Is the Body" 428
The Bull of Phalaris 431
"What Does the Physician Really Know?" 434
"For I Have Loved My Melancholia" 437
Adolph Peter Adler 440
The Book on Adler 444
"Confusion-Making of the Highest Order" 446
Saint Paul and Carpetmaker Hansen 448
Exaltation: 7-14-21; 7-14-21; 7-14-21 450
"The Sensual Pleasure of Productivity" 452
Graphomania 457
Rad. Valerianæ 460

1847
<\P>

"Perhaps You Would Also Like Me to Listen to Your Brain Beating?" 463
The Press: "The Government's Filth Machine" 471
To Travel Is to Write--and Vice Versa 474
"The Air Bath" 476
Either and Or 479
Regine Schlegel 484
"A People's Government Is the True Image of Hell" 486
"This Is the Idea of the Religious" 490
"100,000 Rumbling Nonhumans" 492
"Perhaps the Alarm Will Be Sounded in the Camp and I Will Be the Manhandled Victim" 495
"You Are Expecting a Tyrant, While I Am Expecting a Martyr" 498
God Hates Pyramids 500
Liberty, Equality, and Mercy 502
From the Financial Papers of One Still Living 505
Money in Books 508
"Year after Year, at My Own Expense" 513

Part Four: 1848
<\P>

Extravagance in the Service of the Idea 531
"Copenhagen Is a Very Filthy Town" 535
The Sickness unto Death 540
"To Poetize God into Something a Bit Different" 542
"The Poetry of Eternity" 545
To Publish or Not to Publish 548
The Point of View for My Work as an Author 550
"What Hasn't This Pen Been Capable of . . . ?" 554
"But Then, of Course, I Cannot Say'I? " 556
In Charge of His Own Posthumous Reputation 562
"My Father Died-Then I Got Another Father in His Place" 565
"I Am Regarded as a Kind of Englishman, a Half-Mad Eccentric" 569

1849
<\P>

Dedications and a Rebuff 574
Martensen's Dogmatics 576
A Sunday in the Athenæum 580
Rasmus Nielsen 582
Fredrika Bremer's Report Card 589
Kierkegaard's Dream 593
The Sealed Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Schlegel 597
"Come Again Another Time" 602
Jakob Peter Mynster 604
"When I Look at Mynster-" 619
Two Ethical-Religious Essays 626
The Will to Powerlessness 627
The Ventriloquist Who Said "I" 630
The Poet of Martyrdom: The Martyrdom of the Poet 632
"Dr. Exstaticus" 636

1850
<\P>

Eight Ways Not to Say Good-Bye 642
Moving Days 646
Practice in Christianity 650
"Blasphemous Toying with What Is Holy" 654
The Idiot God-and His Times 656
The Voices of the Scandalized 659
"And Why, Then, This Concealment?" 662

1851
<\P>

"That Line about Goldschmidt Was Fateful" 668
Kierkegaard in the Citadel Church 673
Fan Mail 675
The Dedication to Regine 679
A Theological Village Idiot 680

1852
<\P>

"She Came Walking as if from the Lime Kiln" 684
The Final Apartment 689

1853
<\P>

A Life in the Underworld 692
Nielsen: A Demonic Scoundrel 698
"One Day I Saw the Corpse Bus Come" 700
"The Prices Must Be Jacked Up in the Salon" 702
S. A. versus A. S. 707
"Christianity Is the Invention of Satan" 714

Part Five: 1854
<\P>

The Death of a Witness to the Truth 727
"-That Is How a Witness to the Truth is Buried!" 732
"To Bring About a Catastrophe" 733
"A Devil of a Witness to the Truth" 734

1855
<\P>

"My Opponent Is a Glob of Snot" 740
Virginie and Regine-to Lose What Is Most Precious 745
"Quite Simply: I Want Honesty" 746
"Therefore, Take the Pseudonymity Away" 749
The Moment 752
"Then That Poet Suddenly Transformed Himself" 754
Out with Inwardness! 757
"The Pastor-That Epitome of Nonsense Cloaked in Long Robes!" 758
The Death of God 764
Grundtvig's Rejoinder 766
"Pastor P. Chr. Kierkegaard, Lic. Theol., My Brother" 769
"In a Theater, It Happened That" 771
"Come Listen, Brilliant Bastard Son" 775
"You Dine with the Swine" 780
Patient No. 2067 781
Postmortem 793
A Little Corpse with Nowhere to Go 794
The Will, the Auctions, and a Psychopathic Missionary 799
The Papers No One Wanted 805
Peter Christian's Misery 807
The Woman among the Graves 810

Illustration Credits 815
Notes 817
Bibliography 845
Index 855