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 v
... Mahomet : Islam . Lecture III . The Hero as Poet . 67 Dante ; Shakspeare . Lecture IV . The Hero as Priest . 99 Luther ; Reformation : Knox ; Puritanism . Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters . 133 Johnson , Rousseau , Burns . Lecture ...
... Mahomet : Islam . Lecture III . The Hero as Poet . 67 Dante ; Shakspeare . Lecture IV . The Hero as Priest . 99 Luther ; Reformation : Knox ; Puritanism . Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters . 133 Johnson , Rousseau , Burns . Lecture ...
Page xxvii
... Mahomet , Cromwell are three of my figures ; I mean to shew that ' Hero - worship never ceases , ' that it is at bottom the main or only kind of worship . " 52 The rapidity with which the plan for the lectures took shape in Carlyle's ...
... Mahomet , Cromwell are three of my figures ; I mean to shew that ' Hero - worship never ceases , ' that it is at bottom the main or only kind of worship . " 52 The rapidity with which the plan for the lectures took shape in Carlyle's ...
Page xxviii
... Mahomet is not a very intimate friend to any of us . " 65 In fact by common accord the second lecture was what Carlyle himself claimed for it , " the best I ever delivered . " If anything it was " far too good , " he ruefully complained ...
... Mahomet is not a very intimate friend to any of us . " 65 In fact by common accord the second lecture was what Carlyle himself claimed for it , " the best I ever delivered . " If anything it was " far too good , " he ruefully complained ...
Page xxix
... Mahomet was no mere sensualist , or vulgar impostor , but a real reformer . ” 70 By such challenging claims Carlyle no doubt expected to surprise his listeners , who mainly represented the English political and reli- gious establishment ...
... Mahomet was no mere sensualist , or vulgar impostor , but a real reformer . ” 70 By such challenging claims Carlyle no doubt expected to surprise his listeners , who mainly represented the English political and reli- gious establishment ...
Page xli
... Mahomet le prophete ( 1741 ) . Even the partial rehabilitation of Muhammad's reputation at the hands of Gibbon , " the smoothly shaven historian so ironically civil to Christianity , " 150 was undertaken for the ulterior purpose of ...
... Mahomet le prophete ( 1741 ) . Even the partial rehabilitation of Muhammad's reputation at the hands of Gibbon , " the smoothly shaven historian so ironically civil to Christianity , " 150 was undertaken for the ulterior purpose of ...
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