Philosopher of the Heart
  • Published: 19 May 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141984438
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

Philosopher of the Heart

The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard

Formats & editions
Paperback
19 May 2020
EBook
4 Apr 2019
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'Engrossing ... Carlisle has pulled off the feat of writing a truly Kierkegaardian biography of Kierkegaard' (Julian Baggini, Financial Times)

Søren Kierkegaard is now celebrated as the father of existentialism - yet his contemporaries described as a philosopher of the heart. In the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen analysing love and suffering, courage and anxiety, religious longing and defiance, and forging a new philosophical style rooted in the inward drama of being human. His restless creativity was spurred on by own failures: his relationship with the young woman whom he promised to marry, then left to devote himself to writing, haunted him throughout his life. Though tormented by the pressures of celebrity, he lived amidst the crowds in Copenhagen, known by everyone but, he felt, understood by no one. When he collapsed exhausted at the age of 42, he was still pursuing the question of existence: how to be a human being in this world?

Clare Carlisle's innovative and moving biography writes Kierkegaard's remarkable life as far as possible from his own perspective, conveying what it was like to be this Socrates of Christendom - as he put it, living life forwards yet only understanding it backwards
  • Published: 19 May 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141984438
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

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Praise for Philosopher of the Heart

She wonderfully conveys how, pelican-like, Kierkegaard tore his philosophy from his own breast

Jane O'Grady, Telegraph

One of the best biographies of modern masters by a new generation

Daniel Johnson, Standpoint

Philosopher of the Heart enacts Kierkegaard's audacity and verve in thinking and writing, his "new way of doing philosophy", in a thrillingly inward and intimate style

Boyd Tonkin, Arts Desk

This lucid and riveting new biography at once rescues Kierkegaard from the scholars and makes it abundantly clear why he is such an intriguing and useful figure

Adam Phillips, Observer

Superb... the sort of biography Kierkegaard himself might have written, thematic in structure rather than chronological, lucid in its narrative but not exhaustive in detail. ... Carlisle's book has its own beauty, reminding us that Kierkegaard sympathized with our own troubles, our own desires to live decent lives

David Mason, The Hudson Review
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