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 xvii
... Speeches published . Emerson visits England and spends time with the Carlyles . Carlyle meets Sir Robert Peel , whom he admires and whose leading role in the repeal of the Corn Laws he has supported . Carlyle tours Ireland with his ...
... Speeches published . Emerson visits England and spends time with the Carlyles . Carlyle meets Sir Robert Peel , whom he admires and whose leading role in the repeal of the Corn Laws he has supported . Carlyle tours Ireland with his ...
Page xxiv
... speech " and the way his fingers " picked at the desk before him . " As " he scarcely slept , " and " grew more dyspeptic and nervous every day , " she concluded that " no fame and no money ... could counterbalance the misery which the ...
... speech " and the way his fingers " picked at the desk before him . " As " he scarcely slept , " and " grew more dyspeptic and nervous every day , " she concluded that " no fame and no money ... could counterbalance the misery which the ...
Page xxxi
... speech ; as they were , or rather as they might have been . . . delivered . " 82 The style he sought was that of the ideal lecture , and in this Carlyle succeeded so well that it is easy for readers to forget that the book is no ...
... speech ; as they were , or rather as they might have been . . . delivered . " 82 The style he sought was that of the ideal lecture , and in this Carlyle succeeded so well that it is easy for readers to forget that the book is no ...
Page xxxii
... speech , it lacks much of the literary embellishment of its published version . Carlyle actually roughens his language into growls , barks , and quixotic wrenchings to emulate the strain inherent in the process of thought , and he ...
... speech , it lacks much of the literary embellishment of its published version . Carlyle actually roughens his language into growls , barks , and quixotic wrenchings to emulate the strain inherent in the process of thought , and he ...
Page xliii
... Speeches , the problem remained the same he had set himself in the lectures , the fashioning of a true portrait of the Protector free from historical distortion and the blur of mediocre reporting . It was no easy task . In September he ...
... Speeches , the problem remained the same he had set himself in the lectures , the fashioning of a true portrait of the Protector free from historical distortion and the blur of mediocre reporting . It was no easy task . In September 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