When was Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard first published?
Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard was first published in February 1843. The book appeared in two volumes under the pseudonymous editorship of Victor Eremita.
Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard was first published in February 1843. The book appeared in two volumes under the pseudonymous editorship of Victor Eremita.
Søren Kierkegaard wrote the manuscript for Either/Or during his stay in Berlin from October 1841 to March 1842. A journal entry from 1846 states that the work was written lock, stock, and barrel in eleven months.
The four pseudonyms used in Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard are Victor Eremita, A, Judge Vilhelm or William, and Johannes the Seducer. Each life view is written and represented by a fictional author with prose reflecting their specific perspective.
From a literary point of view, Either/Or can be seen as a thinly veiled autobiography of events between Søren Kierkegaard and his ex-fiancée Regine Olsen. Johannes the Seducer treats Cordelia much as Kierkegaard treated Regine after breaking off their engagement.
Either/Or was one of Søren Kierkegaard's last books to be translated into English, with the translation published as late as 1944. The work received new life as a grand philosophical work following the publication of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue in 1981.