Walter Lowrie's classic, bestselling translation of Soren Kierkegaard's most important and popular books remains unmatched for its readability and literary quality. "Fear and Trembling" and "The Sickness Unto Death" established Kierkegaard as the father of existentialism and have come to define his contribution to philosophy. Lowrie's translation, first published in 1941 and later revised, was the first in English, and it has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to Kierkegaard's thought. Kierkegaard counted "Fear and Trembling" and "The Sickness Unto Death" among "the most perfect books I have written," and in them he introduces two terms--"the absurd" and "despair"--that have become key terms in modern thought. Fear and Trembling takes up the story of Abraham and Isaac to explore a faith that transcends the ethical, persists in the face of the absurd, and meets its reward in the return of all that the faithful one is willing to sacrifice, while The Sickness Unto Death examines the spiritual anxiety of despair.

Walter Lowrie's magnificent translation of these seminal works continues to provide an ideal introduction to Kierkegaard. And, as Gordon Marino argues in a new introduction, these books are as relevant as ever in today's age of anxiety."

"Why I so much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven--in the spring at the earth."--Soren Kierkegaard

The father of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a philosopher who could write like an angel. With only a sentence or two, he could plumb the depths of the human spirit. In this collection of some 800 quotations, the reader will find dazzling bon mots next to words of life-changing power. Drawing from the authoritative Princeton editions of Kierkegaard's writings, this book presents a broad selection of his wit and wisdom, as well as a stimulating introduction to his life and work.

Organized by topic, this volume covers notable Kierkegaardian concerns such as anxiety, despair, existence, irony, and the absurd, but also erotic love, the press, busyness, and the comic. Here readers will encounter both well-known quotations ("Life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other principle, that it must be "lived forward"") and obscure ones ("Beware false prophets who come to you in wolves' clothing but inwardly are sheep--i.e., the phrasemongers"). Those who spend time in these pages will discover the writer who said, "my grief is my castle," but who also taught that "the best defense against hypocrisy is love."

Illuminating and delightful, this engaging book also provides a substantial portrait of one of the most influential of modern thinkers.Gathers some 800 quotationsDrawn from the authoritative Princeton editions of Kierkegaard's writingsIncludes an introduction, a brief account and timeline of Kierkegaard's life, a guide to further reading, and an index"

Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: Critical Appraisals was the first anthology of essays on Kierkegaard's classic to be published in English. The authors are a remarkable collection of scholars, some already well known and some standing at the beginning of their scholarly careers. The list of authors includes Louis Jacobs, David A. Pailin, Merold Westphal, Paul Holmer, Edward F. Mooney, John Donnelly, C. Stephen Evans, David J. Wren, Mark C. Taylor, Nancy Jay Crumbine, and Jerry H. Gill. The collection contains comparative, historical, and analytic essays focusing on Kierkegaard's relations to the Akedah, the multiple tensions raised by Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. These essays abound with penetrating insights into many Kierkegaardian concepts that are important not just in Fear and Trembling but found throughout Kierkegaard's writings, such as paradox, resignation, faith, the absurd, the individual, the poet, the hero, immediacy, the ethical and its suspension, the leap of faith, offence, and silence.

Basic Writings of Existentialism, unique to the Modern Library, presents the writings of key nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers broadly united by their belief that because life has no inherent meaning that humans can discover, we must determine meaning for ourselves. This anthology brings together into one volume the most influential and commonly taught works of existentialism. Contributors include Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ralph Ellison, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo.