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S2ren Kierkegaard:

A Biography
Front Cover
11 Reviews
PRINCETON University Press, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 867 pages

"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.

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Review: Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography

User Review  - Steve Bennett - Goodreads

Had Kierkegaard lived in contemporary times, he simply would have been prescribed mood-altering medications, written a hit movie "Forgetting Regine Olsen," and performed history of rap skits with ... Read full review

Review: Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography

User Review  - Daniel - Goodreads

Joakim Garff's Soren Kierkegaard is a whopper of a biography coming in at 810 pages, but the tone was fairly light and the pace fairly quick so it was by no means burdensome. It took a long time to ... Read full review

All 9 reviews »

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References from web pages

Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography . By Joachim Garff. Translated by Bruce
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography. By Joachim Garff. Translated by Bruce. H. Kirmmse. Princeton University Press, 2005. 867 pages. $35.00. ...
jaar.oxfordjournals.org/ cgi/ reprint/ 75/ 1/ 153.pdf

Table of Contents for Garff, J.; Kirmmse, bh, trans.: Søren ...
Table of Contents for Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography by Garff, J.; Kirmmse, BH, trans., published by Princeton University Press.
pup.princeton.edu/ TOCs/ c7809.html

Fear and Trembling
SØREN KIERKEGAARD: A Biography By Joakim Garff Translated from the Danish by Bruce H. Kirmmse. ... SØREN KIERKEGAARD: A Biography. By Joakim Garff ...
www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ content/ article/ 2005/ 05/ 26/ AR2005052601318_pf.html

Søren Kierkegaard: Biography and Much More from Answers.com
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography, Princeton University Press. ISBN 069109165X; Hannay, Alastair, 2003. Kierkegaard: A Biography (new ed.). ...
www.answers.com/ topic/ s-ren-kierkegaard

D. Anthony Storm's Commentary on Kierkegaard - A Select Bibliography
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography Garff, Joachim, tr. Bruce H. Kirmmse. Princeton University Press, 2005. Translation of above work. ...
sorenkierkegaard.org/ biblio.htm

ASK- The Journal of the College of Arts and Sciences | Drexel ...
Reviewers of the English translation, Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography (Princeton, .... It is uncertain what will happen with Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography. ...
www.drexel.edu/ coas/ ask/ essays-articles/ piety-reflections.asp

Kierkegaard Among the Biographers - Books & Culture
Søren Kierkegaard, A Biography Joakim Garff, Trans. by Bruce H. Kirmmse .... Joakim Garff's Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography is an altogether different kind ...
www.christianitytoday.com/ bc/ 2007/ 004/ 20.12.html

Hudson Review, The: Søren Kierkegaard: A Master of Refraction
1 SØREN KIERKEGAARD: A Biography, by Joakim Garff. Trans. by Bruce H. Kirmmse. Princeton University Press. $35.00. 2 There has been some controversy ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_qa4021/ is_200604/ ai_n17187984/ print

Gordon Daniel Marino - Nothing Personal: Kierkegaard's Generous ...
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography did not appear in English translation until 2005. There has been controversy over some of Garff's factual claims, ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ common_knowledge/ v013/ 13.1marino.html

Søren Kierkegaard - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography, Princeton University Press. ... Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography (tr. Bruce Kirmmse), Princeton University Press, 2005, ...
es.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

About the author (2005)

Joakim Garff is Associate Professor at the Soren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of numerous books and is the coeditor of a project to publish definitive new Danish-language editions of all of Kierkegaard's writings.

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