- Johan Ludvig Heiberg. In literary and
aesthetic matters, Heiberg had more or less
the same sort of authority that Mynster
had in theological and ecclesiastical affairs.
In younger days Kierkegaard was a caller
at the Heiberg home in Christianshavn, a
guest of the celebrated and powerful Heiberg
couple. Kierkegaard soon acquired the witty
and elegant tone of the Heiberg circle and
was almost beside himself with delight
when someone erroneously attributed to
Heiberg one of the articles he had published
anonymously. But when Heiberg, review-
ing Either/Or, called it a “monster of a
book,” and then was similarly ungracious in
his treatment of Repetition, Kierkegaard
changed direction and made the Heibergian
position—including Hegel and Goethe—
the object of his hatred. - Hans Christian Andersen. “He is too
big and too odd. And therefore he must be
pushed around,” he wrote in the fairy tale
“The Ugly Duckling.” And he was pushed
around by a number of people, including the
odd Kierkegaard, who took him to task in
From the Papers of One Still Living,
from 1838, his very first book, which was
marked by a stilted style and by mile-long
sentences. And it was said that Kierkegaard
and Andersen were the only people who had
bothered to read the entire book. While they
were alive, these two men, who would later
make Danish letters world-famous and who
are often mentioned in the same breath, pre-
ferred to avoid each other’s company—most
likely because they reflected each other’s
weaknesses.
romina
(Romina)
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