Philosophy apart, Kierkegaard was also a dedicated journal writer and self analyst for most of his life, which ended at only 42.
Melancholy, introspective, courageous and intellectually isolated, a despiser of his fellow Danes as humdrum and provincial, a Nordic Protestant to the core, he was temperamentally driven to live on the brink emotionally and to distance himself from others. His broken engagement to Regine Olsen, who eventually married another man, his rejection of the petit bourgeois Christianity of his milieu, his almost Nietzschean contempt for the herd, are recurrent themes throughout, although he was also a witty writer and a close observer of his age. A postscript describes his death and last words, and the rejection by Regine (at her husband's request) of Kierkegaard's bequest to her, which included little except books and his author's rights.