Customer Reviews

Diary of a Seducer

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As most Kierkegaard buffs will know, this novel is actually a small part of the monumental philosophical tract, Either/Or from 1843. Please don't let that fact keep you from reading this delightfully seductive and disturbing novel. In it, Kierkegaard sets out to describe and explore the life of the ultimate aesthete, Johannes, as he targets an innocent young girl, Cordelia, for seduction. Kierkegaard plays with layers of framing and writes such exquisite prose that at least this reader constantly has to struggle not to be seduced by the beauty of it. His aim in writing the text is, at least in part, to show how horrible Johannes and people like him really are, but a surprising number of people just plain don't get the subtlety of Kierkegaard's irony. Hannay's translation doesn't seem to get in the way (I've read it in the original Danish as well), although I'll leave it to the Kierkegaard scholars to determine whether its really a good translation or not.

I just had the pleasure of rereading this book that I first read 20 years ago on the recommendation of one of my graduate school professors. It's an impressive statement of belief in the power of the mind over the superficial while playing to a wholly inappropriate (but amusing) chord of self pity and thinly veiled self love. A great perspective on Soren's mind.