Philosopher of the Heart

The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard

By: Clare Carlisle

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.

Much of his creativity sprang from his relationship with the young woman whom he promised to marry, then left to devote himself to writing, a relationship which remained decisive for the rest of his life. He deliberately lived in the swim of human life in Copenhagen, but alone, and died exhausted in 1855 at the age of 42, bequeathing his remarkable writings to his erstwhile fiancee.

Clare Carlisle's innovative and moving biography writes Kierkegaard's life as far as possible from his own perspective, to convey what it was like actually being this Socrates of Christendom - as he put it, living life forwards yet only understanding it backwards.

©2019 Clare Carlisle (P)2020 Tantor

Beautifully written, itself Kierkegaardian

The vocal performance is very well done.
The book itself is a joy to read. Rather than a chronological point by point retelling of Kierkegaard’s life, this is more like a painting, capturing in flashes of color different aspects of his person and thought. While never claiming to encapsulate him, this biography gets at the heart of the philosopher, exploring all his oddities, tensions, paradoxes, and ironies. While not hagiography, this book does demonstrate the author’s love for the subject, a fascination easily transferred to the reader. Though a biography that sets forward in linear fashion the events of his life and the interpretation and influence of his writings may be more helpful for a traditional look at the “facts” of the man, this book makes contact with the subject and the reader in a uniquely powerful way. It achieves the basic goal of introducing readers to the happenings of Kierkegaard’s life and the mind behind his authorship, but goes beyond that end to beckon readers inward, asking readers to reckon with the questions about selfhood, fidelity, truth, and God that Kierkegaard sought to provoke. In this way the book is faithful to Kierkegaard’s own project, moving from observation to imitation.
I’d recommend this book to people new to reading Kierkegaard to create interest, as well as to those already familiar with his story and writings to offer a fresh reflection.

an intimate portrayal of a fascinating individual

I don't know how you can listen or read a biography of Soren K and not be drawn towards this paradoxical, melodramatic and complex creature.

One word wow. Loved the book one of the best

The book beckoned to me from the beginning . She wrote with wonderful words and provided wisdom in thought provoking way. First few chapers I thought to be flavorful, the last few not so muich . The author concisely captured his philosophy with a poet flow. Overall it was still outstanding.

Excellent

I think the author does an incredible job of introducing sk’s life and psychology. She brilliantly blends his journals and writing into her telling of his life. I really feel like I now “know” SK almost like one knows a friend

Unique

A unique and valuable approach to understanding Kierkegaard. Gets to the heart of his life.

Fatally flawed

Would have been an excellent book, but, critically, does not come close to even the barest of mentions of the role that Kierkegaard’s closeted homosexuality played in the philosopher’s moral and philosophical development. As a result, this biography feels incomplete and inadequate, and philosopher himself deeply misunderstood.