Kierkegaard: A Biography traces the evolution of a character who himself was made up of many characters of his own creation. Søren Kierkegaard's writings, published under various pseudonyms, were made in response to "collisions" with significant individuals (including his father, his brother, a fiancé whom he rejected, and a prominent Danish bishop). The development of these pseudonymous characters reflect Kierkegaard's growing sense of self, and his discovery of that self as being essentially religious. With considerable mastery of the political, philosophical, and theological conflicts of 19th century Europe, Alastair Hannay's biography also serves as an excellent introduction to Kierkegaard's philosophy and faith. From sentence to sentence, the book is full of small pleasures, particularly Hannay's judiciously employed, humanizing vernacular phrases. (As a young man, "Søren," like so many people, "blamed his father for messing up his life.") And like his subject, Hannay is a shrewd observer of the often-misleading relationship between appearance and reality. For instance, he suggests that "it does seem plausible to suppose that a main motivation behind the huge effort that writers put into their poetic products stems often from a sense of lacking in themselves the very substance that their works appear to convey." --Michael Joseph Gross
From Publishers Weekly
Kierkegaard wrote publicly, under a variety of inventive pseudonyms simultaneously revealing and concealing aspects of his self-scrutinizing personality, and privately, in his journals, under an increasingly paradoxical sense of self challenging any would-be biographer to faithfully render his life. And yet, like the writer of a mystery novel, he does drop clues to the puzzle of himself, for which veteran Kierkegaard scholar Hannay (professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Oslo) has a keen detective's eye. Kierkegaard saw his life as a series of "collisions" with a few key individuals, and over the course of his life, he gradually realized a persona that was fundamentally religious. Hannay traces that dramatic unfolding through his sustained counterpoise of Kierkegaard's journal entries with his published oeuvre. In Hannay's hands, Kierkegaard's treatises, novels and journalistic essays are brilliant literary reflections of troubled personal encounters with an imperious father (Michael), a self-divided older brother (Peter), a rejected fianc?e (Regine Olsen) and a complacent bishop (Jacob Mynster), who embodies, for Kierkegaard, the established church of Denmark. The infinitely interpretable Kierkegaardian themes of irony and despair, seduction, the exceptional individual, paradox and life alternatively inflected by aesthetics, ethics or religion become newly accessible under this rigorous biographic gaze. For instance, Kierkegaard's efforts to justify the exceptional individual by excusing him from universal norms (in his own case, marriage) appear less as proto-existential heroism than as a sophisticated intellectual's attempt to protect a simple faith (such as Michael Kierkegaard's) from the pretensions of Hegelian philosophy to subsume it. Hannay's judiciously selected quotes from Kierkegaard will surely seduce those who are not already in thrall to this master stylist into reading at least some of his works firsthand. 8 pages of photos. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Leading Kierkegaard scholar Hannay (philosophy, emeritus. Univ. of Oslo) here takes a more or less chronological approach to Kierkegaard's life while at the same time illustrating the development of, influences on, and various branches of Kierkegaard's thought. The result is a superb biography of a man whose life has often been misunderstood and whose thought has had a profound influence on the existentialist movement (though, given his strong religious sensibilities, Kierkegaard himself might pale at being called an existentialist). Hannay has taken great pains not only to place Kierkegaard's writings within the context of the philosophical thought of his time but also to illustrate clearly the development of Kierkegaard's ideas within his own writings. The result is perhaps the best picture yet of Kierkegaard and his place in Western philosophical thought. Together with Bruce Kirmmse's Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark (LJ 5/15/90. o.p.), this book should find a place in every academic and large public library. Terry C. Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Hannay advances an interpretive thesis that unites Kierkegaard's life with his work, thereby giving both a new integrity and coherence. He argues--with remarkable thoroughness and plausibility--that the brooding Dane wrote his probing analyses not to launch an international philosophical movement (which he did almost accidentally) but rather to define for himself the personal drama he was trying to act out in the streets, churches, and salons of Copenhagen. This bold thesis of the philosopher as personal playwright illuminates key passages in Kierkegaard's writings, and it clarifies the philosopher's ultimate martyrdom as a rebel against Christendom, showing his decisive break with the Danish Church as his final attempt to stage his self-assigned literary role as a tragic hero. In this theater of the self, Hannay shows us Kierkegaard taking important cues from other philosophers (Hegel especially) and from Scripture. But the biography repeatedly confronts us with Kierkegaard's radical freedom--and responsibility--in improvising his own script for living, a radical autonomy that kindled the existentialist revolution. Compelling reading for anyone with an interest in modern philosophy. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"[A] welcome addition...Hannay gives a penetrating analysis of Kierkegaard's authorship...[T]here is much to be celebrated in this work. This book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the life or works of Kierkegaard. Even the Kierkegaard scholar will undoubtedly learn something new from reading Hannay's fine book." Noel S. Adams, Marquette University, Review of Metaphysics
"Hannay writes as a seasoned philosopher and gifted translator, offering ample and even-handed expositions of Kierkegaard's published works and their immediate polemical contexts, and refusing to collapse their liveliness into a sorry bundle of suffering and self-pity....this prudent, tactful and canny new life is exactly what Kierkegaard needed." Times Literary Supplement
"Alastair Hannay has devoted enormous efforts to familiarize himself with what was going on in Denmark in Kierkegaard's time, and with the details of the controversies in which he embroiled himself. The result is a biography that gives us a much clearer understanding of many of Kierkegaard's writings, and is indispensible for anyone trying to follow the twists and turns of his thought." Richard Rorty, author of Contingency, Irony & Solidarity
"...a superb biography of a man whose life has often been misunderstood...The result is perhaps the best picture yet of Kierkegaard and his place in Western philosophical thought...this book should find its way into every academic and large public library." Library Journal
"Hannay advances an interpretive thesis that unties Kierkegaard's life with his work, thereby giving both a new integrity and coherence...remarkable thoroughness and plausibility...Compelling reading for anyone with an interest in modern philosophy." Booklist
"...a lucid and concientiously written book that pays dazzling attention to the fine details." Harper's
"[A] thorough intellectual biography..." The New Republic
"Hannay advances an interpetive thesis that unties Kierkgaard's life with his work, thereby giving both a new integrity and coherence....remarkable thoroughness and plausibility....Compelling reading for anyone with an interest in modern philosophy." Booklist
..."a lucid and conscientiously written book that pays dazzling attention to the fine details." Guy Davenport Harper's Magazine Aug. 2001
[A] thorough intellectual biography..." New Republic
Book Description
Written by one of the world's preeminent authorities on Kierkegard, this biography is the first to reveal the delicate imbrication of Kierkegard's life and thought. To grasp the importance and influence of Kierkegaard's thought far beyond his native Denmark, it is necessary to trace the many factors that led this gifted but (according to his headmaster) 'exceedingly childish youth' to grapple with traditional philosophical problems and religious themes in a way that later generations would recognize as amounting to a philosophical revolution. Although Kierkegaard's works are widely tapped and cited they are seldom placed in context. Nor is due attention placed to their chronology. However, perhaps more than the work of any other contributor to the Western philosophical tradition, these writings are so closely meshed with the background and details of the author's life that knowledge of this is indispensible to their content. Alastair Hannay solves these problems by following the chronological sequence of events and focusing on the formative stages of his career from the success of his first, pseudonymous work ^Either/Or through to The Sickness Unto Death and Practice in Christianity. This book offers a powerful narrative account which will be of particular interest to philosophers, literary theorists, intellectual historians, and scholars of religious studies as well as any non-specialist looking for an authoritative guide to the life and work of one of the most original and fascinating figures in Western philosophy. Alastair Hannay is Professor Emeritus in the department of philosophy at the University of Oslo. He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion of Kierkegaard (1998) and is also translator of several works by Kierkegaard in Penguin Classics.
Kierkegaard: A Biography FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Written by one of the world's preeminent authorities on Kierkegaard, this biography in the first to reveal the delicate imbrication of Kierkegaard's life and thought. To grasp the importance and influence of Kierkegaard's thought far beyond his native Denmark, it is necessary to trace the many factors that led this gifted but (according to his headmaster) "exceedingly childish youth" to grapple with traditional philosophical problems and religious themes in a way that later generations would recognize as amounting to a philosophical revolution." "This book offers a narrative account that will be of particular interest to philosophers, literary theorists, intellectual historians, and scholars of religious studies as well as to any nonspecialist looking for an authoritative guide to the life and work of one of the most original and fascinating figures in Western philosophy."--BOOK JACKET.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
An intellectual biography of Denmark's second-most famous melancholic. Hannay (Philosophy/Univ. of Oslo) has produced several works on Kierkegaard, one of the 19th century's most iconoclastic thinkers, and he has translated many of Kierkegaard's books into English. Here he applies his formidable knowledge of the philosopher's work to the task of grounding it in the minutiae of the man's life. From the outset Hannay admits that many will dispute the relevance of his project, and those who believe that the story of an author's life sheds no light on the meaning of his works will find little to savor here. Those of other theoretical persuasions will be richly rewarded, however. Moving chronologically through Kierkegaard's life with somewhat breathtaking familiarity, the author deftly isolates the influences that specific events had on his thinking. Most interestingly, the Danish-speaking Hannay is able to situate Kierkegaard in his Copenhagen milieu, revealing local, often petty battles where others have seen earthshaking disputes with Great European Thinkers. The problem with Hannay's approach, however, is that in the end not terribly much happened to Kierkegaard. Apart from the well-known jilting of his fiancee (which effectively began his writing career) and the self-immolating attack on the church (which ended it), Kierkegaard's adult life was surprisingly uneventful. Twenty years of studying German philosophers and writing like a fiend produced some fascinating books, but it did not make for riveting biography. Furthermore, the breadth of Hannay's knowledge occasionally pushes him towards the hagiographic; he tends to find a rationale for every utterance of Kierkegaard's, no matterhow small or strange, despite the strong possibility that Kierkegaard (with his love of pseudonyms and propensity for depression) may have been a bit unstable. For those with the patience and willingness to work their way through, though, a remarkably nuanced, delicately drawn picture of Kierkegaard's thought eventually emerges here. Kierkegaard's great fear was that later thinkers would cram his life's work into a two-paragraph precis; Hannay has gone to great lengths to prevent that from ever happening.
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