This anthology covers the whole of Kierkegaard’s literary career. The selections range from the terse epigrams of the Journal through the famous “Diary of the Seducer” and the “Banquet” scene, in which S.K. reveals his great lyric and dramatic gifts, on to the philosophical and psychological works of his maturity. These are climaxed by the beautiful and moving religious discourses which accompany them; finally, there is the biting satire of his Attack upon “Christendom.”

This is emphatically not a collection of “snippets,” but the cream of Kierkegaard, each selection interesting and intelligible in itself, and all ranking among his most important work,. As the New York Herald Tribune commented, Mr. Bretall ”has let Kierkegaard speak for himself…he has made his selections carefully and sensitively, and the prefatory remarks that accompany each selection are models of what such remarks should be.”