Essay
Either/Or
Enten – Eller
Søren Kierkegaard · 1843
Synopsis
A man buys an old secretaire and discovers in a hidden drawer two bundles of papers. The first is by a nameless aesthete, whom the editor calls A: aphorisms, essays, including one on Mozart's Don Juan, and the diary of a seducer who patiently leads a young girl where he wants. The second is by a married judge, B, who writes A long letters urging him to choose a life that commits.
Context
The book is written in part in Berlin, after the breaking of the engagement. Printed on 15 February 1843 at Bianco Luno, it appears on the 20th from the bookseller Reitzel, in two volumes and more than eight hundred pages, signed by a supposed editor, Victor Eremita, “the victorious hermit”, who says he found the papers and imagines they might be by a single man. The first volume opens with ninety short fragments and closes with the Seducer's Diary; the second brings together the letters of B. The author's identity was quickly guessed.
Who it is for
Two large volumes in Danish, one substantial volume in French. Aphorisms, essays, a diary and letters follow one another; one can begin with the fragments at the start.
Prizes and reception
Acclaimed on publication, it made its author's reputation and remains the most read of his books; it is included in the Danish cultural canon.
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