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. |
From inside the book
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Page xvi
... lives . Edward Irving dies . In September , Carlyle begins to write The French Revolution . In March he is forced to begin The French Revolution again when the only copy of the manuscript ( one - third completed ) is accidentally ...
... lives . Edward Irving dies . In September , Carlyle begins to write The French Revolution . In March he is forced to begin The French Revolution again when the only copy of the manuscript ( one - third completed ) is accidentally ...
Page xxi
... live off the proceeds of " Mirabeau " and " The Diamond Necklace , " empty " in purse and in hope . " 4 Finance then , rather than fame , was the spur that first prodded Carlyle onto the public platform , where he began to lecture " for ...
... live off the proceeds of " Mirabeau " and " The Diamond Necklace , " empty " in purse and in hope . " 4 Finance then , rather than fame , was the spur that first prodded Carlyle onto the public platform , where he began to lecture " for ...
Page xxiii
... lives whether I speak well or speak ill , or even decline to speak at all , and do nothing but gasp . " 21 At times he could not help worrying that on the day of the lecture he might have to say that " it has become entirely impossible ...
... lives whether I speak well or speak ill , or even decline to speak at all , and do nothing but gasp . " 21 At times he could not help worrying that on the day of the lecture he might have to say that " it has become entirely impossible ...
Page xxiv
... live a year off the proceeds , and be virtually immune to fortune . " Life and labour were now made possible on honest terms , and literary recognition , if it was to come at all , could be waited for without starvation . " 30 There was ...
... live a year off the proceeds , and be virtually immune to fortune . " Life and labour were now made possible on honest terms , and literary recognition , if it was to come at all , could be waited for without starvation . " 30 There was ...
Page lviii
... live . At the same time they do not act in a vacuum or in social isolation . Others feel more dimly what they perceive most sharply . Their effect upon others is like that of a catalyst or , in Carlyle's metaphor , a lightning rod or ...
... live . At the same time they do not act in a vacuum or in social isolation . Others feel more dimly what they perceive most sharply . Their effect upon others is like that of a catalyst or , in Carlyle's metaphor , a lightning rod or ...
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