SOURCE: Pattison, George. “The Initial Reception of Either/Or.” In International Kierkegaard Commentary: Either/Or, Part II, edited by Robert L. Perkins, pp. 291-305. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Pattison discusses the contemporary reception of Either/Or, suggesting that although some readers were apparently overwhelmed by its complexity, others produced thoughtful, relevant commentary on the work.

Either/Or was made available to the Danish reading public on 20 February 1843 by C. A. Reitzel, University bookseller and publisher in Copenhagen, at a cost of four dollars, four marks and eight shillings, per copy. Within two years the entire edition of 525 copies had been sold, making it (by the standards of the day) a literary success.¹ A second edition followed in 1849, and since then it has been translated into a wide variety of languages, riding the fame of its now acknowledged author, Søren Kierkegaard. In the...