In recent years, various introductions to Kierkegaard's thought have been issued. Inevitably, they have had to confront the challenge of presenting Kierkegaard's complex oeuvre in limited space and in lucid prose – a challenge that C. Stephen Evans's Kierkegaard handles with remarkable aplomb. That Evans pulls off such a task is no surprise: he is one of the more celebrated Kierkegaard scholars of the last few decades. Thus it is fitting (and welcome) that this book serves as a précis of Evans's back catalogue, returning to favourite themes such as Kierkegaard's ideas on ‘choice’ and ‘the self.’ It also advances more topical issues, including a noteworthy critique of postmodern readings of Kierkegaard. The text is helpfully arranged according to Kierkegaard's ‘stages of existence’ – an approach that will facilitate preliminary forays into Kierkegaard's authorship, even as it will stimulate debate among specialists. Indeed, predictably, Kierkegaard bears a few blemishes, in large part due to its preparatory nature. For example, Evans distinguishes between ‘Kierkegaard the philosopher’ and ‘Kierkegaard the theologian’. This distinction – which is assumed, rather than established – does focus his study, which explicitly ‘takes Kierkegaard seriously as a philosopher’. However, it also gives the misleading impression that Kierkegaard's philosophical insights can be meted out from his overall project. Moreover, it tacitly excuses Evans's prioritisation of Kierkegaard's most philosophical pseudonym, Johannes Climacus. Still, on the whole, Evans has crafted an enviable introduction to Kierkegaard's thinking, one that deserves a place at the front of the primers now available.