Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) was a gifted reader and critic. His essay on Mozart's Don Giovanni, for example, is a classic text for philosophicallyminded music critics, and his treatment of the Romantic conception of irony in his dissertation maintains a secure position in the literature on the topic. A much wider audience, of course, is familiar with his interpretation of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac in Fear and Trembling. Even in those cases when one might ultimately decide to disagree with his interpretations, it is always stimulating to look through his critical eyes and in so doing to see the works he reads in a fresh light.

Kierkegaard read German fluently and German-language authors are frequently discussed in his works. But while Kierkegaard's readings of such figures as Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, and Lessing have been well studied – to say nothing of Hegel and Schelling – much less attention has been paid to his reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann. This is understandable: Kierkegaard wrote much less about him. No extended passage in any published work discusses Hoffmann, not even in The Concept of Irony, where he considered at length such modern figures as Schlegel, Tieck, Jean Paul, and Solger. Still, it would be mistaken to conclude that Hoffmann was unimportant to Kierkegaard. His library contained two complete editions of Hoffmann's works, and references or allusions to many different Hoffmannian texts are sprinkled throughout Kierkegaard's works. In his journals and letters he declares Hoffmann very “refreshing” and asserts a great personal affinity with him, and he also records multiple reflections on Hoffmann in relation to humor and irony. Further, Kierkegaard's engagement with Hoffmann can be seen in the way he employs pseudonymous characters as authors, and in several editorial prefaces. The nature of the evidence does make assessing Kierkegaard's view of Hoffmann somewhat difficult, but there is certainly enough material to suggest the effort can be worth pursuing. Indeed, attention to Kierkegaard's engagement with Hoffmann is of value not only for understanding the development of Kierkegaard's ideas especially about humor and irony, but also because it is suggestive in its own right as an interpretation of his German predecessor.