Thomas Carlyle

History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Volume 1 Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the Victorian era. After attending the University of Edinburgh, he suffered an intense crisis of faith and conversion that would provide the material for Sartor Resartus (1832), his first major work. The book was intended to be simultaneously factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. It ironically commented on its own formal structure, while forcing the reader to confront the problem of where 'truth' is to be found. His success was assured by the publication of The French Revolution (1837). Filled with a passionate intensity, hitherto unknown in historical writing, Carlyle's account of the motivations and urges that inspired the events in France seemed powerfully relevant. The dehumanisation of society was a theme pursued in later books such as Past and Present (1843), in which Carlyle sounded a note of conservative scepticism. Other works include: On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841), Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Life of John Sterling (1851) and Early Kings of Norway (1875).