This chapter discusses Kierkegaard's perspectives on his own childhood. It first describes a document authored by Kierkegaard which contains a review of the first twenty-six years of his life, though that document has since been lost to history. The chapter then embarks on a more general discussion of Kierkegaard's early years; including his childhood habits, mannerisms, the people he encountered, and most especially how his father remained a formidable presence in his young life. It contains not only Kierkegaard's own reflections and perspectives on his childhood years, but also of testimonies made by his kindred and other people who were close to him at the time, both of which the chapter reveals to ensure a fuller portrait of Kierkegaard's early life. Finally, the chapter relates an excerpt from Kierkegaard's Stages On Life's Way (1845), entitled “The Quiet Despair.”
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 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. This classic biography presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. It 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.
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