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 xxx
... eyes , from the remoteness of their deep setting under that massive brow . His manner is very quiet , but he speaks like one tremendously con- vinced of what he utters , and who had much — very much — in him that was quite unutterable ...
... eyes , from the remoteness of their deep setting under that massive brow . His manner is very quiet , but he speaks like one tremendously con- vinced of what he utters , and who had much — very much — in him that was quite unutterable ...
Page xxxi
... eye which all his friends recall . " But the answer to Harrison's rhetorical question " Could printed essay and spoken . words be so absolutely the same ? " 85 is , in fact , No , they could not , 77 Letters 12:98 , TC to Alexander ...
... eye which all his friends recall . " But the answer to Harrison's rhetorical question " Could printed essay and spoken . words be so absolutely the same ? " 85 is , in fact , No , they could not , 77 Letters 12:98 , TC to Alexander ...
Page xxxvii
... eyes especially there is a wild silent sorrow ; · giving to the rest the true stamp of nobleness " 122 ( see Plate 6 ) . He found confirmatory evidence of his opinion of Rousseau in the philosopher's face , which was " expressive of him ...
... eyes especially there is a wild silent sorrow ; · giving to the rest the true stamp of nobleness " 122 ( see Plate 6 ) . He found confirmatory evidence of his opinion of Rousseau in the philosopher's face , which was " expressive of him ...
Page xxxviii
... eye could penetrate the face of the flunky to see his merits . At the end of his life , Carlyle wrote a commentary on a sixteenth - century book of Reformation portraits , in which he confronted the question of the portraits of the ...
... eye could penetrate the face of the flunky to see his merits . At the end of his life , Carlyle wrote a commentary on a sixteenth - century book of Reformation portraits , in which he confronted the question of the portraits of the ...
Page xxxix
... eye - witnesses , looking at the busi- ness with their own eyes from seven or eight different sides " and that no " theory , ' by what Professor soever , can be of any use to me in comparison . " 138 The opening of a burial heap , he ...
... eye - witnesses , looking at the busi- ness with their own eyes from seven or eight different sides " and that no " theory , ' by what Professor soever , can be of any use to me in comparison . " 138 The opening of a burial heap , he ...
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