most expensive philosophy book I’ve ever seen?

Could be. At Schoenhof’s, a couple of blocks from Harvard, I saw the new Heidegger volume of seminars on Hegel and Schelling. The price: a mere $238.50. [ADDENDUM: Sorry, I just remembered it was $235.80. That’s even more annoying. The 80 cents at the end lays claim to some sort of precision in currency exchange, rhetorically hinting at a scrupulous equivalence that simply isn’t there. That part was so annoying, in fact, that I was amused by the thought of taking it to register and haggling a bit: saying I’d take the book for a round $235, but that Schoenhof’s would have to eat the 80 cents because that was going just a bit too far. Just to see what they’d say. It’s not really in my temperament to do such things, however.]

I’m not sure what to say, except that you shouldn’t buy it.

One thing I learned the hard way about Heidegger volumes is that the paperbacks are generally better than the hardcovers despite being a bit cheaper. The hardcover bindings crack easily and are slightly difficult to handle, whereas their paperback bindings are pretty nice.

Most (not all, but most) of the recent volumes are Grade B material. There are plenty of mediocre Picasso paintings, and there are plenty of mediocre pages of Heidegger.

Last year I decided I no longer felt obliged to keep up with all the new volumes. There’s just too much to read now. But now that the seminars are going to start to come out in large numbers, curiosity will get the better of me and I’ll get back with the program.

The book is HERE. Klostermann’s price is 89 Euros, and anyone who reads German even minimally can order successfully from Amazon.de or from the Vittorio Klostermann page, so I’m not sure how Schoenhof’s gets away with saying that 89 Euros equals $238.50. It’s a bit insulting, actually.