Separated more by space than by time or breadth of idea, Herman Melville and Søren Kierkegaard worked on opposite ends of the earth. It was the brilliance of both, and their addition to the philosophic, literary, and artistic consciousness of their own and subsequent generations that made them stand out among their age. Though the men grew up in vastly different circumstances and locations, the metaphysical, ethical, and epistemological parallels between them can be seen throughout their bodies of work, most clearly in Melville's landmark Moby Dick, and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling (written under the penname Johannes de silentio).
