The seducer's diary
By: Søren Kierkegaard ; edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong ; with a new foreword by John Updike
Contributors: Hong, Howard V. (Howard Vincent), 1912-2010; Hong, Edna H. (Edna Hatlestad), 1913-2007
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
ISBN-13: 9780691158419
Work titles: Forførerens dagbog
Description: "In the vast literature of love, The Seducer's Diary is an intricate curiosity--a feverishly intellectual attempt to reconstruct an erotic failure as a pedagogic success, a wound masked as a boast," observes John Updike in his foreword to Søren Kierkegaard's narrative. This work, a chapter from Kierkegaard's first major volume, Either/Or, springs from his relationship with his fiancée, Regine Olsen. Kierkegaard fell in love with the young woman, ten years his junior, proposed to her, but then broke off their engagement a year later. This event affected Kierkegaard profoundly. Olsen became a muse for him, and a flood of volumes resulted. His attempt to set right, in writing, what he feels was a mistake in his relationship with Olsen taught him the secret of "indirect communication." The Seducer's Diary, then, becomes Kierkegaard's attempt to portray himself as a scoundrel and thus make their break easier for her.--from publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-214).