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 ix
... hope to assist the contempo- rary reader in negotiating Carlyle's densely referential prose . A tissue of quotation from varied and disparate sources intertwined with the " Literary Work of Thomas Carlyle , " 92. ( For complete ...
... hope to assist the contempo- rary reader in negotiating Carlyle's densely referential prose . A tissue of quotation from varied and disparate sources intertwined with the " Literary Work of Thomas Carlyle , " 92. ( For complete ...
Page x
... hope that the explanatory annotation , like the critical text , will be a starting point for the work of reading and interpretation , a foundation on which readers of the present and future may build the often - changing struc- tures of ...
... hope that the explanatory annotation , like the critical text , will be a starting point for the work of reading and interpretation , a foundation on which readers of the present and future may build the often - changing struc- tures of ...
Page xxi
... hope . " 4 Finance then , rather than fame , was the spur that first prodded Carlyle onto the public platform , where he began to lecture " for subsistence , " 5 and it remained a keen incentive 1 The four series were : in 1837 " German ...
... hope . " 4 Finance then , rather than fame , was the spur that first prodded Carlyle onto the public platform , where he began to lecture " for subsistence , " 5 and it remained a keen incentive 1 The four series were : in 1837 " German ...
Page xlix
... hope of making Goethe properly known but " only to prove that he is worthy of being known . " 200 But for this problem , Carlyle's " chosen specimen of the Hero as Literary Man would be this Goethe , " he told his audience in 1840.201 ...
... hope of making Goethe properly known but " only to prove that he is worthy of being known . " 200 But for this problem , Carlyle's " chosen specimen of the Hero as Literary Man would be this Goethe , " he told his audience in 1840.201 ...
Page lvi
... hope that despite the dismal showing of heroism in the eighteenth century , some revolu- tionary revival of the heroic spirit was still possible . Cromwell as hero is not for Carlyle a distant historical figure separated by two hundred ...
... hope that despite the dismal showing of heroism in the eighteenth century , some revolu- tionary revival of the heroic spirit was still possible . Cromwell as hero is not for Carlyle a distant historical figure separated by two hundred ...
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