Customer Reviews

The Essential Kierkegaard

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A wonderful, chronologically arranged anthology from the immensely prodigious output of Soren Kierkegaard, complete with excellent introductory notes.

My only criticism? The typography is a bit dense, and in particular the font size for the running text is small. I would appeal to the publisher to reformat this book using a larger text size (e.g., 10 point) -- even at the expense of adding additional pages to the overall book size.

This book had been completely surprising to me, mainly I had bought the book to learn about some basic philosophy, turns out it opened my mind to a bunch of new topics. Kierkegaard informs you about Theology,Philosophy and Psychology. The Hongs have also edited this book into a masterpiece and have made this book so enjoyable to read. Even if you do not understand all of what Kierkegaard is trying to put forth it does not matter because through the Hongs editing it makes it readable and that does make a difference. Another little tid bit you may want to hear in trying to figure out if you would enjoy this book or not is that once you read the first couple chapters you may feel like you might have made a bad choice but stick with it, it starts off slow and after those first couple chapters you feel as if, like myself, have been surpised how enjoyable the read is.

With a dizzying series of pseudonyms, from Climaticus to Anticlimaticus, this book selects from the Hong's expansive translation of all of Kierkegaard's writings. The introductions place each piece in context, but don't over interpret as some other books. Reading from the complete work presents a view of Kierkegaard's total plan ("The Authorship") and his voices of the religious, esthetic, and ethical. In light of the whole body, "Concluding Unscientific postscript" seems to have a pivotal role. Existentialists may like to claim him as he speaks of the individual about despair, fear and trembling, and anxiety, but make no mistake his work is to be a Christian (" Once and for all I must urgently request the kindly disposed reader continually to bear in mente [in mind] that the total thought in the entire work as an author is this" becoming a Christian"). He is a self appointed critic of the established church and the inclusion of the lesser known "The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air' shows the religious side. Present are all of Kierkegaard's "Knights": the Knight of Faith, the Knight of Infinite Resignation, and the Knight of Hidden Awareness. Humor and irony abound. Come leap in, and have a good read!

Søren Kierkegaard is undoubtedly the comedian's philosopher. And his humor is fundamentally reassuring - hilarious, even biting, but never bitter or nihilistic. He is one of the major influences on the films and writings of Woody Allen. Often Kierkegaard is rumored to be bleak, hopeless and terrifying. There are elements of despair, yes, but I've always found him good for a laugh even at his darkest. His humor is similar to Woody Allen's in that it is simultaneously cathartic, sobering and very funny. I flip around this excellent anthology and re-read passages in my spare time for encouragement.

I am of Danish descent, so I is nice to hear from the motherland. However, I am not of K's tradition, so this is an outsider's look at Mr. K's philosophy.

I am quite impressed with what Mr. K has to say. It took me a while to get into his style of speaking and writing, but one I picked up his dialect, I was awestruck! Sometimes titles not only grab you, but mesmerize you. His essay "Sickness unto Death," which I had heard of in passing, was one of these titles that I just could not get out of my head.

The advantage of this compilation is that it is done by the General Editors of the "Collected Works of S. K.," so the translation, pagination and diction are all the same in the individual books and this small hors d'oeuvre plate. Having used various translations of Machiaveli, or different editions of Plato, it is nice to have one standard translation.

I recommend book as a being like a "Best of Kierkegaard," much like a "Best of" CD from an unknown band. You get the good stuff, eliminate all the filler material, and can buy the individual books if you so choose.

As I said, I am not of K's faith, but I appreciate his faithfulness in search for truth!

nevertheleee... introduced to man as on of
the four main existentialist.., nietsche,
camus sartre... maybe fifth antoine de
st. exupery's flight to arras

however.. suffice to comment.. kierkegard
is mellow man

the triumvirate brace of christianic
philosophy is soren kierkegard, and
the psychologists, bruto bettleheim,
harry stack sullivan, and karen horney

best wishes,
enjoy one's own bibliophilic bent

spotter3
coastwatch quadrant 8,
truk atoll, caroline islands,south pacific