A Short Life of Kierkegaard

Walter Lowrie

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780691157771
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400845972
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosopher Biographies

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.

INDEX

A

Aarsleff, Carl, 4

Adler, case of, 126, 192, 210

aesthetic works, 144ff.

Ahsverus, 95

allowance, 110

Andersen, H. C., 7, 15, 111, 133, 182

Anger, Pastor, 40

Anti-Climacus, 200ff., 217

Antigone, 76ff.

Apostle, 194

“Armed neutrality,” 210

attack, open, 239ff.

B

background, 3ff.

Balle’s Lesson Book, 44

Barfod, H. P., 31, 35f, 71

Barth, Karl, 173

becoming a Christian, 125, 174

Berlin, 15, 144ff., 157ff., 186, 203

Boesen, Emil, 8, 120, 144, 157, 254f

Brandes, Georg, 198, 220

Brandt, Prof. Frithiof, 7, 34, 106f, 111

breaking a leg, 98

Brøchner, Prof. Hans, 6

brothers and sisters, 22f., 64

burial, 255f

C

cafés, 58

Captain, the, 231f

Carpocratians, 94

carriage drives, 15, 191

childhood, 25ff., 31ff., 37ff

choice, 174

choice of profession, 82f

Christian Discourses, 197

Climacus, Johannes, 45, 55ff., 166f

Climacus reviews S.K.’s works, 169

Concept of Dread, 93, 163

Concept of Irony, 149

Concluding Postscript, 168f

Copenhagen, 3ff., 9ff 15

Corsair, The, 7, 176ff., 193

counsels of perfection, 220f

country parish, 169, 185, 190

cramp, 126

crazy upbringing, 50f

cross roads, 79ff.

Crucifixion, picture of, 49ff.

Cry, the Midnight, 242f

curse, t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Preface
• Background
• Childhood
• Early Youth · 1830 to 1834
• The Great Earthquake · Twenty-second birthday
• At the Cross Roads · 1835
• The Path of Perdition · 1836
• Groping His Way Back · May 1836 to May 1838
• Father and Son United · Twenty-five years of age
• The Great Parenthesis · August 1838 to July 1840
• Regina · September 1840 to October 1841
• The Aesthetic Works · 1841 to 1845
• The Postscript · 1846
• The Affair of the Corsair · 1846–
• Thirty-four Years Old · 1847
• The Edifying Discourses · 1843 to 1855
• Metamorphosis · 1848
• Venturing Far Out · 1849 to 1851
• Holding Out · 1852 to 1854
• Godly Satire · 1854/55
• Death and Burial · October 2 to November 18, 1855
• Kierkegaard’s Last Words
• Kierkegaard’s Works in English
• How Kierkegaard Got into English
• Index