{"product_id":"9781400846986","title":"Stages on Life's Way","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStages on Life's Way\u003c\/i\u003e, the sequel to \u003ci\u003eEither\/Or\u003c\/i\u003e, is an intensely poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. With characteristic love for mystification, he presents the work as a bundle of documents fallen by chance into the hands of \"Hilarius Bookbinder,\" who prepared them for printing. The book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. (George Brandes maintained that \"one must recognize with amazement that it holds its own in this comparison.\") Next is a discourse by \"Judge William\" in praise of marriage \"in answer to objections.\" The remainder of the volume, almost two-thirds of the whole, is the diary of a young man, discovered by \"Frater Taciturnus,\" who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break his engagement. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three \"existence-spheres\" represented by the three parts of the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eStages on Life's Way\u003c\/i\u003e not only repeats themes, characters, and pseudonymous authors of the earlier works but also goes beyond them and points to further development of central ideas in \u003ci\u003eConcluding Unscientific Postscript.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47137796784368,"sku":"9781400846986","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781400846986_p0.jpg?v=1763713646","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781400846986","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}