Thomas Carlyle
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Thomas Carlyle (December 4, 1795 – February 5, 1881) was a Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the Victorian era. Coming from a strictly Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected by his parents to become a preacher. However, while at the University of Edinburgh, he lost his Christian faith; nevertheless, Calvinist values remained with him throughout his life. This combination of a religious temperament with loss of faith in traditional Christianity made Carlyle's work appealing to many Victorians who were grappling with scientific and political changes that threatened the traditional social order.
Translation
- German Romance (1827)
Works
- (1829) Signs of the Times The Victorian Web
- (1831) Sartor Resartus Project Gutenberg
- (1837) The French Revolution: A History Project Gutenberg
- (1840) Chartism Google Books
- (1841) On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History Project Gutenberg
- (1843) Past and Present Project Gutenberg
- (1845) Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations, ed. Thomas Carlyle, 3 vol. (1845, often reprinted). online version another online version
- Morrill, John. "Textualizing and Contextualizing Cromwell." Historical Journal 1990 33(3): 629–639. ISSN 0018-246X Fulltext online at Jstor. Examines the Abbott and Carlyle edit
- (1849) "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question", Fraser's Magazine (anonymous), Online text
- (1850) Latter-Day Pamphlets Project Gutenberg
- (1851) The Life Of John Sterling Project Gutenberg
- (1858) History of Friedrich II of Prussia Index to Project Gutenberg texts
- (1867) Shooting Niagara: and After Online Text
- (1875) The Early kings of Norway Project Gutenberg
- (1882) Reminiscences of my Irish Journey in 1849 Online text
There are several published "Collected Works" of Carlyle:
Unauthorized lifetime editions:
- "Thomas' Carlyle's Ausgewählte Schriften", 1855–56, Leipzig. Translations by A. Kretzschmar. Abandoned after 6 vols.
Authorised lifetime editions:
- Uniform edition, Chapman and Hall, 16 vols, 1857-58.
- Library edition, Chapman and Hall, 34 vols (30 vols 1869-71, 3 additional vols added 1871 and one more 1875). The most lavish lifetime edition, it sold for 6 to 9 shillings per volume (or £15 the set)
- People's edition, Chapman and Hall, 39 vols (37 vols 1871-74, with 2 extra volumes added in 1874 and 1878). Carlyle insisted the price be kept to 2 shillings per volume.
- Cabinet edition, Chapman and Hall, 37 vols in 18, 1874 (printed form the plates of the People's Edition)
Posthumous editions:
- Centennial edition, Chapman and Hall, 30 vol, 1896-99 (with reprints to at least 1907). Introductions by Henry Duff Traill. The text is based on the People's edition, and it is used by many scholars as the standard edition of Caryle's works.
- Norman and Charlotte Strouse edition (originally the California Carlyle edition), University of California Press, 1993-2006. Only 4 volumes were issued: "On Heroes" (1993), "Sartor Resartus" (2000), "Historical Essays" (2003) and "Past and Present" (2006). Despite being incomplete, it is the only critical edition of (some of) Carlyle's works.