Heiberg’s dignified invulnerability was unbearable. Even as late as August
1851, Kierkegaard wrote to Heiberg, informing him that he was standing by
his “original decision, that you are to have a copy of everything I produce.”
Alluding to “what you [Heiberg] once mentioned in a conversation, that I
shower you with books,” Kierkegaard nonetheless affably expressed the
hope that Heiberg would still be able to “survive these continual showers,”
and we may thus fairly conclude that at least as late as 1851 Kierkegaard was
still sending Heiberg copies of his writings. The only surviving copies of
Kierkegaard’s writings containing dedications to Heiberg that are known
today areThree Edifying DiscoursesandFour Edifying Discourses, both from
1843,Concluding Unscientific Postscriptfrom 1846,Works of Lovefrom 1847,
Christian Discoursesfrom 1848,The Sickness unto Deathfrom 1849, plusThe
High Priest—The Tax Collector—The Woman Who Was a Sinner: Three Dis-
courses at the Communion on Fridays, also from 1849. Not one single thank-
you note for these “showerings” has been preserved from Heiberg’s hand.
There was a single exception, however, because Kierkegaard had thought
of a cunning maneuver. On March 29, 1846, he sent off a package con-
tainingConcluding Unscientific Postscriptplus two copies ofA Literar yReview,
which contained Kierkegaard’s enthusiastic analysis of Mrs. Gyllembourg’s
novellaTwo Ages. The mother and the son were each to have a copy of
Kierkegaard’s review. But since Mrs. Gyllembourg wrote anonymously, she
was compelled to rely on her son to express her thanks for the gift, and thus
Kierkegaard finally received a letter from Heiberg! It arrived promptly three
days later, on April 2, and in it Heiberg expressed his thanks for the package
which, he believed, was evidence of Kierkegaard’s “kindness.” He consid-
eredA Literar yReviewto be thorough and penetrating and praised Kierk-
egaard highly for the “noble self-denial” with which he subordinated him-
self to his subject matter. Heiberg was much more circumspect concerning
thePostscript, declaring that it would be too long-winded “if in a note like
this I were to set forth the observations and objections I made during my
reading,” but he expressed the hope that at some point the possibility of
providing “a more detailed explication” would present itself.
Heiberg never did provide the explication. And the book, whose 494
pages demand more than three days’ reading, most likely found some unob-
trusive resting place in Heiberg’s enormous library—or at least we may
hope that it did. On page 135 Heiberg would have been able to see his
conversion to Hegelianism held up to ridicule and to see himself caricatured
in the person of a certain Dr. Stagleap, who is the subject of a rather ambiva-
lent testimonial: “According to his own extremely well-written account,
thanks to a miracle at Streit’s Hotel in Hamburg,... on Easter morning,
he became an adherent of Hegelian philosophy—of the philosophy that
romina
(Romina)
#1