Joakim Garff

Garff offers a detailed & incisive portrait of Søoren Kierkegaard, the philosopher, whose works had an enormous influence upon existentialism & postmodernism.

A Biography

Søren Kierkegaard

سورين كيركغارد

Kierkegaard's Muse, the first biography of Regine Olsen (1822-1904), the literary inspiration and one-time fiancée of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, is a moving portrait of a long romantic fever that had momentous literary consequences. Drawing on more than one hundred previously unknown letters by Regine that acclaimed Kierkegaard biographer Joakim Garff discovered by chance, the book tells the story of Kierkegaard and Regine's mysterious relationship more fully and vividly than ever before, shedding new light on her influence on his life and writings. Like Dante's Beatrice, Regine is one of the great muses of literary history. Kierkegaard proposed to her in 1840, but broke off the engagement a year later. After their break, they saw each other strikingly often, inside dimly lit churches, on the streets of Copenhagen, and on the paths along the old city ramparts, passing by without uttering a word. Despite or because of their separation in life, Kierkegaard made Regine his literary life companion, "that single individual" to whom he dedicated all his works. Garff shows how Regine became a poetic presence in the frequent erotic conflicts found throughout Kierkegaard's writings, from the famous "Seducer's Diary" account of their relationship to diary entries made shortly before his death in 1855. In turn, Regine remained preoccupied with Kierkegaard until her own death almost fifty years later, and her newly discovered letters, written to her sister Cornelia, reveal for the first time a woman of flesh and blood. A psychologically acute narrative that is as gripping as a novel, Kierkegaard's Muse is an unforgettable account of a wild, strange, and poignant romance that made an indelible mark on literary history. -- from dust jacket.

The Mystery of Regine Olsen

Kierkegaard's Muse

Internationaal geprezen portret van een van de belangrijkste filosofen aller tijden Nooit eerder werd filosoof Søren Kierkegaard zo grondig geportretteerd. De internationaal geprezen biografie van Joakim Garff is de perfecte combinatie van geschiedenis, filosofie en psychologisch inzicht. Een must-have voor liefhebbers van Søren Kierkegaard, iedereen die filosofie studeert en geïnteresseerden in filosofie. In Søren Kierkegaard: Een biografie ontrafelt Joakim Garff Kierkegaards schuldbewuste verhouding tot zijn vader, de rivaliteit met zijn broers en de turbulente relatie met zijn verloofde Regine Olsen. Ook geeft hij een prachtige zedenschets van het 19e-eeuwse Kopenhagen, waar Kierkegaard steeds vaker conflicten kreeg en in genadeloze karikaturen werd afgebeeld. 'Monumentaal.' - John Updike, The New Yorker 'Meesterlijke biografie van Deense excentriekeling.' - Die Zeit

Een biografie

Kierkegaard

History, philosophy, and psychological insights are integrated into a penetrating analysis of Sren Kierkegaard's life, works, and lasting influence on world intellectual history.

"The day will come when not only my writings, but precisely my life--the intriguing secret of all the machinery--will be studied and studied." Søren Kierkegaard's remarkable combination of genius and peculiarity made this a fair if arrogant prediction. But Kierkegaard's life has been notoriously hard to study, so complex was the web of fact and fiction in his work. Joakim Garff's biography of Kierkegaard is thus a landmark achievement. A seamless blend of history, philosophy, and psychological insight, all conveyed with novelistic verve, this is the most comprehensive and penetrating account yet written of the life and works of the enigmatic Dane who changed the course of intellectual history. Garff portrays Kierkegaard not as the all-controlling impresario behind some of the most important works of modern philosophy and religious thought--books credited with founding existentialism and prefiguring postmodernism--but rather as a man whose writings came to control him. Kierkegaard saw himself as a vessel for his writings, a tool in the hand of God, and eventually as a martyr singled out to call for the end of "Christendom." Garff explores the events and relationships that formed Kierkegaard, including his guilt-ridden relationship with his father, his rivalry with his brother, and his famously tortured relationship with his fiancée Regine Olsen. He recreates the squalor and splendor of Golden Age Copenhagen and the intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard found himself increasingly embattled and mercilessly caricatured. Acclaimed as a major cultural event on its publication in Denmark in 2000, this book, here presented in an exceptionally crisp and elegant translation, will be the definitive account of Kierkegaard's life for years to come.

Johnny Kondrup

Niels Jørgen Cappelørn

"Readers are also introduced to a selection of this enormous body of material, including drawings and doodlings (often human profiles with high foreheads) that escaped from Kierkegaard's pen in unguarded moments and complement the allure of the philosopher's strikingly variable, elusive handwriting. The authors of this book are among the editors of a modern critical edition of Kierkegaard's oeuvre currently being produced in Copenhagen."--BOOK JACKET.

Joakim Garff

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