Clare Carlisle for Transcendence for Beginners

Clare Carlisle is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London, and the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers, including Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Soren Kierkegaard and most recently The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life.

In Transcendence for Beginners, Clare Carlisle examines life writing and philosophy across certain European and Indian traditions, exploring questions of childhood and mortality, art and religion, beauty and loss.

Informed by her experience as a biographer of Soren Kierkegaard and George Eliot as well as her own life, Carlisle asks what one human existence can reveal, and how writing can transmit its truth.

Intellectually stimulating and deeply moving, Transcendence for Beginners enacts a philosophy of the heart, told by a generous and compelling guide. This bold, enlivening work asserts Carlisle's place as one of our most innovative thinkers.

Praise for Clare Carlisle:

'Clare Carlisle's The Marriage Question is the best book I've read on George Eliot.' - John Carey, Sunday Times

'The Marriage Question already has the stamp of a classic and is bound to enter the canon of great biographies. I was amazed by the clarity of Clare Carlisle's language; she deals with the most complex ideas with miraculous ease.' - Celia Paul, author of Letters to Gwen John

'Philosopher of the Heart enacts Kierkegaard's audacity and verve in thinking and writing, his "new way of doing philosophy", in a thrillingly inward and intimate style.'
- Boyd Tonkin, Arts Desk