Like most great philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard was something of a pain in the arse. Brooding, over-privileged and Danish, he sported a preposterous quiff that stood nearly six inches tall. Even Clare Carlisle’s sympathetic new biography can’t make him seem particularly likeable. Kierkegaard emerges as the sort of self-absorbed eternal student familiar from philosophy departments across the world. This, of course, is crucial to his appeal.
Kierkegaard, born in Copenhagen in 1813, was no feckless waster, however. He had a furious work ethic. In his short life (he died aged 42) he published 22 books — and in 1843, he even managed to publish three on one day. Among his works are some of the masterpieces of western philosophy: Either/Or, Fear and Trembling and The
