1840
Regine—in Memoriam
“A rather diminutive, white-haired old lady with the friendliest of expres-
sions opens the door for me the first time I rin gthe doorbell at the corner
house at Nørrebrogade and Sortedamsdossering. She is dressed in a black
silk dress and wears a fringed cap. Just about a year ago she was left the
widow of Privy Councillor Schlegel, a highly respected civil servant, who
was most recently prefect in Copenhagen and formerly governor of the
Danish West Indies. The councillor has left a very large library—a sort of
universal library includin gall sorts of books—the type of library established
before this era of specialized knowledge. Mrs. Schlegel’s agent has asked me
to organize and catalog this library before it was sent to auction. That is
why I am here.”
The year was 1896. It was late in the summer, and the guest to whom
the widow Regine Schlegel opened her door was the librarian Julius Clau-
sen, who was to create a catalo gof the more than seven thousand books
that had belonged to her late husband, including six or seven of Søren Kier-
kegaard’s best-known works. It was a time-consuming task, so for a period
of time Clausen was a regular guest. Around nine o’clock in the evening,
when he was about finished with cataloging the day’s books, Mrs. Schlegel
usually came in and offered some refreshments. She still had a store of guava
rum from her years in the West Indies, and she mixed it with ice water and
served it to the youn glibrarian. “You must be tired now. You could cer-
tainly use a little somethin gcool to drink,” she would say, and it was exactly
what Clausen needed. “And so we sat there in the large rooms, warm from
the summer heat, while the cool of the evenin gfell and the conversation
began. I, of course, knew who she was, but naturally did not presume to
make any allusions. But the old lady was less reticent. It always began with
Schlegel, whose excellent qualities she praised to the skies, but it always
ended with—Kierkegaard.” The spry and well-preserved widow in her
mid-seventies had lon gsince come to see herselfbothas Privy Councillor
Schlegel’s spouseandas Kierkegaard’s fiance ́e—and she clearly assumed this
latter role more and more as the years passed. Julius Clausen wrote diplomat-
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