A review by admatthews
The Seducer's Diary by Edna Hatlestad Hong, Howard Vincent Hong, Søren Kierkegaard

3.0

Read as part of the Penguin Great Loves series, as an extract from the larger work 'Either/Or', forming a standalone piece. Problem with it as a standalone work is that it represents only the extreme aesthetic 'Either', without the opposing ethical 'Or', and over the work it's easy to forget the preface that sets the diary up as the work of a monstrous figure; even with that, it lacks the ethical balance. As a study of extreme aestheticism (extreme to a considerable fault) it uses seduction as the vehicle - and it's very much seduction, not love, though worth remembering that seduction was a morally negative term in a way it no longer is, and these days we would call it stalking and then coercion. It's the amoral aestheticism that involves pure self-indulgence with no regard for the interests of others, and later degenerates into A Rebours, etc. It also reminded me strongly of John Lanchester's 'A Debt to Pleasure'.