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 xxii
... feeling was proleptic , for on the evidence of his journals and letters , lecturing was always to be an ordeal and sometimes a martyr- dom to him , which may account for the " sort of crucified Expres- sion " Edward FitzGerald recalled ...
... feeling was proleptic , for on the evidence of his journals and letters , lecturing was always to be an ordeal and sometimes a martyr- dom to him , which may account for the " sort of crucified Expres- sion " Edward FitzGerald recalled ...
Page xxiii
... feel as if I were to be flung overboard , and bid swim or drown . " 17 Many literary figures had preceded and many were to follow him onto the public platform , among them Coleridge , Hazlitt , De Quincey , Sydney Smith , Thackeray ...
... feel as if I were to be flung overboard , and bid swim or drown . " 17 Many literary figures had preceded and many were to follow him onto the public platform , among them Coleridge , Hazlitt , De Quincey , Sydney Smith , Thackeray ...
Page xxvii
... feeling of confusion and anxiety were the usual accompaniments of Carlyle's efforts at composition . By the end of March he was still complaining that the " Lecture - project hardly advances into clearness ; stands waiting for a ...
... feeling of confusion and anxiety were the usual accompaniments of Carlyle's efforts at composition . By the end of March he was still complaining that the " Lecture - project hardly advances into clearness ; stands waiting for a ...
Page xxix
... feel our need of a Church . " The lecture itself was " by far the most animated and vehement I ever heard from him . It was a passionate defence of Mahomet from all the charges that have been brought against him , and a general ...
... feel our need of a Church . " The lecture itself was " by far the most animated and vehement I ever heard from him . It was a passionate defence of Mahomet from all the charges that have been brought against him , and a general ...
Page xxxiii
... feeling was one of painful struggle . As he said of the fourth , it had been finished , " tho ' not till after the toughest fight . " 95 By the first week in September the writing was completed and ready " for Print- ing , for ...
... feeling was one of painful struggle . As he said of the fourth , it had been finished , " tho ' not till after the toughest fight . " 95 By the first week in September the writing was completed and ready " for Print- ing , for ...
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