repetition. It is curious that the onl yperson for whom repetition succeeded
was Regine, who was united once again with Fritz and could begin again—
thanks to Kierkegaard, who had busied himself with a tale about the impor-
tance of chance events. For what if he had not responded to Regine’s nod
that da yin church, thereb yunknowingl ygiving his blessing to her relation-
ship with Fritz? Constantin Constantius thus seems to be correct in asserting
that “existence” is infinitel yprofound because “its governing power knows
how to intrigue in a fashion entirel ydifferent than that of all the poets taken
together.”
In an yevent, on October 16, 1843, for the sum of five marks (or eight y
shillings) one could acquire a cop yofRepetition, finall ysubtitledA Venture
in Experimenting Psychology. And then, indeed, everything began to repeat
itself, even Heiberg, who gave the book a once-over in his usual chatty
fashion. InUrania, which appeared on December 19, 1843, he published
an article titled “The Astronomical Year,” in which he went through the
book and among other things raised the objection that repetition does not
belong to the world of philosoph ybut to that of nature, where it forms a
tranquil counterpart to such spiritual maladies as melancholia and spleen
and is thus one of “the principal keys to the true wisdom of life.”
Misunderstood b yHeiberg—who, after all, was usuall yheld to be a care-
ful reader—Kierkegaard felt induced to write an “Open Letter” in order to
state his case very plainly: “When one defines repetition in this way, it is
transcendent, a religious movement b yvirtue of the absurd, and when one
has come to the boundar yof the wondrous, eternit yis the true repetition.
So I think I have expressed myself rather intelligibly to the book’s real
reader.” One might think so, but Heiberg looked at the matter quite differ-
ently, and Kierkegaard therefore lambasted him with corrections up one
page and down the next, so that the proportion between Heiberg’s critique
and Kierkegaard’s rejoinder was on the order of 1:50, totall yout of propor-
tion, something Kierkegaard eventuall yrealized, so he consigned the whole
business to a little packet that he labeled “I ought not waste m ytime.”
And he was right about that. There was, in fact, other business to attend to.
The Retracted Text
“If I had had faith, I would have stayed with Regine. Thank God that I
have now realized this. Lately, I have been close to losing my mind.” These
words date from Ma y17, 1843, and are thus from Kierkegaard’s second sta y
in Berlin, where he completed the first version ofRepetitionand beganFear