"THE PROPHET OF EXISTENTIALISM"

KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Enten-Eller. Et Livs-Fragment. Kjobenjavn [Copenhagen]: C.A. Reitzel, 1843. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary violet ribbon-embossed cloth, elaborately gilt-decorated spines. $9500.

First edition of Kierkegaard's first significant work, one of only 525 copies printed and published by the philosopher under the pseudonym "Victor Eremita."

Kierkegaard's earliest major work, Enten-Eller (Either/Or) contrasts two ways of life: the aesthetic and the ethical. The book comprises "a curious bundle of papers, essays, semi-dialogues and notes, seemingly ill-assorted, but in fact dialectically arranged… the chief advantage of this method seems to have been to give Kierkegaard the opportunity of letting different sides of his mind converse as individuals with each other, in a semi-Socratic fashion… Choice, as the title of his work suggests, was at the root of Kierkegaard's theory. There can be no system of existence, only a system of ideas. From this he develops his thesis of 'Existence' (since taken up by the modern Existentialists)… As a thinker, Kierkegaard had to wait for the twentieth century to find his audience; he is now generally considered to be, however eccentric, one of the most important Christian philosophers" (PMM 314). With the scarce half titles. Kierkegaard's name inked in an early hand under the author line on the half title of volume I; partially removed oval stamp on title page of volume II.

Contents with occasional light foxing, small area of offsetting from inked author name; spines evenly toned to brown, boards with spots of toning, cloth slightly rubbed at corners and spine ends. A very good copy.