{"product_id":"the-seducers-diary-9780691158419","title":"The Seducer's Diary","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"In the vast literature of love, \u003ci\u003eThe Seducer's Diary\u003c\/i\u003e is an intricate curiosity--a feverishly intellectual attempt to reconstruct an erotic failure as a pedagogic success, a wound masked as a boast,\" observes John Updike in his foreword to S ren Kierkegaard's narrative. This work, a chapter from Kierkegaard's first major volume, \u003ci\u003eEither\/Or\u003c\/i\u003e, springs from his relationship with his fiancée, Regine Olsen. Kierkegaard fell in love with the young woman, ten years his junior, proposed to her, but then broke off their engagement a year later. This event affected Kierkegaard profoundly. Olsen became a muse for him, and a flood of volumes resulted. His attempt to set right, in writing, what he feels was a mistake in his relationship with Olsen taught him the secret of \"indirect communication.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Seducer's Diary\u003c\/i\u003e, then, becomes Kierkegaard's attempt to portray himself as a scoundrel and thus make their break easier for her. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Matters of marriage, the ethical versus the aesthetic, dread, and, increasingly, the severities of Christianity are pondered by Kierkegaard in this intense work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe text is from \u003cb\u003eHoward V. Hong's\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eEdna H. Hong's\u003c\/b\u003e standard English translation of \u003ci\u003eThe Writings of Kierkegaard\u003c\/i\u003e. The foreword by \u003cb\u003eJohn Updike\u003c\/b\u003e was specifically commissioned for this volume.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50707489521938,"sku":"9780691158419","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c2f2e84a-aea8-4619-987f-cb2b835eb86a.jpg?v=1734496026","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-seducers-diary-9780691158419","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}