On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in HistoryUniversity of California Press, 1993 M06 7 - 622 pages In his 1840 lectures on heroes, Thomas Carlyle, Victorian essayist and social critic, championed the importance of the individual in history. Published the following year and eventually translated into fifteen languages, this imaginative work of history, comparative religion, and literature is the most influential statement of a man who came to be thought of as a secular prophet and the "undoubted head of English letters" (Emerson). His vivid portraits of Muhammad, Dante, Luther, Napoleon—just a few of the individuals Carlyle celebrated for changing the course of world history—made On Heroes a challenge to the anonymous social forces threatening to control life during the Industrial Revolution. In eight volumes, The Strouse Edition will provide the texts of Carlyle's major works edited for the first time to contemporary scholarly standards. For the general reader, its detailed introductions and annotations will offer insight into the author's thought and a reconstruction of the diverse and often arcane Carlylean sources. |
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Page xlvii
... Italians seem to be yet very much where they were . Shall we say , then , Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison ? Not so : his arena is far more restricted ; but also it is far nobler , clearer ; —perhaps not less but more ...
... Italians seem to be yet very much where they were . Shall we say , then , Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison ? Not so : his arena is far more restricted ; but also it is far nobler , clearer ; —perhaps not less but more ...
Page lxv
... Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini , who knew Carlyle . History , insisted Mazzini , directly confuting Carlyle , " is not the bi- ography of great men . " Great men are the priests of the religion of humanity but no priest " is equal in ...
... Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini , who knew Carlyle . History , insisted Mazzini , directly confuting Carlyle , " is not the bi- ography of great men . " Great men are the priests of the religion of humanity but no priest " is equal in ...
Page lxvi
... Italy in his eyes is the glory of having produced Dante . . . of Germany that of having given birth to Luther . . . . The shadow thrown by these gigantic men appears to eclipse from his view every trace of the national thought of which ...
... Italy in his eyes is the glory of having produced Dante . . . of Germany that of having given birth to Luther . . . . The shadow thrown by these gigantic men appears to eclipse from his view every trace of the national thought of which ...
Page 42
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Contents
vii | |
ix | |
xv | |
xxi | |
Note on the Text | lxxxi |
On Heroes HeroWorship and the Heroic in History | 1 |
Notes | 227 |
Works Cited | 393 |
Textual Apparatus | 419 |
Index | 487 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alexander Carlyle American edition Arab beautiful believe Books Boswell Boswell's British Burns Carlyle wrote Carlyle's century Christian copy-text Cromwell Cromwell's Dante Dante's death earnest Earth Edda Emerson England English Essays Etin Euphuisms eyes fact false falsehood French Revolution Froude genuine German Gibbon God's Goethe heart Heaven Heimskringla Hero as Divinity Hero as Poet Hero-worship heroic heroism History of Literature human Inferno Johnson Joseph Neuberg Jötuns kind King Knox Korán lecture Letters Literary live London look Luther Macaulay Mahomet Mirabeau modern Muḥammad Napoleon Nature noble Norse Novalis Odin Old Norse Paganism Parliament Poetic Edda poor portrait Priest Prose Edda Protestantism Puritan Qur'an Reformation religion Rousseau rude Sartor Scepticism Scotland Shakspeare silent sincere soul speak speech spiritual struggle TC to John things Thomas Carlyle Thor thought tion true truth University variants Voltaire whole wild withal word worship writing