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 xxvii
... stands waiting for a ' glimpse of health , ' which , alas , refuses to arrive . " 54 Nevertheless he entertained the thought " of writing them down ; then flaming about , over both hemispheres with them ( too like a Cagliostroccio ...
... stands waiting for a ' glimpse of health , ' which , alas , refuses to arrive . " 54 Nevertheless he entertained the thought " of writing them down ; then flaming about , over both hemispheres with them ( too like a Cagliostroccio ...
Page xxxii
... stand it . I take ten or twelve days to each ; and get into violent extremes of indigestion , this way and that , by means of it . " 90 He continued to fret that the lectures seemed " absolutely worth nothing at all , " 91 that they ...
... stand it . I take ten or twelve days to each ; and get into violent extremes of indigestion , this way and that , by means of it . " 90 He continued to fret that the lectures seemed " absolutely worth nothing at all , " 91 that they ...
Page lvi
... stands as a shining example to Carlyle's nineteenth - century audience , and beyond that to the world Carlyle wished ... stand related to me , the seventeenth worthless except precisely in so far as it can be made the nineteenth . " 243 ...
... stands as a shining example to Carlyle's nineteenth - century audience , and beyond that to the world Carlyle wished ... stand related to me , the seventeenth worthless except precisely in so far as it can be made the nineteenth . " 243 ...
Page lxv
... stand as Carlyle's last or only word on the subject . One needs to recall that ten years earlier , in " On History " ( 1830 ) , he had offered a more democratic and broadly based conception of history : " Social Life is the aggregate of ...
... stand as Carlyle's last or only word on the subject . One needs to recall that ten years earlier , in " On History " ( 1830 ) , he had offered a more democratic and broadly based conception of history : " Social Life is the aggregate of ...
Page lxvi
... stand for nothing — at least nothing but nebulous raw material ; only the big planets and shining suns for him . " 301 It was an inevitable consequence of Carlyle's exalting his heroes that he should appear to diminish his fellows , for ...
... stand for nothing — at least nothing but nebulous raw material ; only the big planets and shining suns for him . " 301 It was an inevitable consequence of Carlyle's exalting his heroes that he should appear to diminish his fellows , 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