KIERKEGAARDS WRITINGS, XI, VOLUME 11

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. Stages on Life s Way 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 Concluding Unscientific Postscript. ?