Customer Reviews (1)

genius
Carlyle's 'Sartor Resartus' is the greatest neglected book in cultural history, endlessly complex, subtle, always self-critical, ironic, mysterious, beautiful and powerful. Not a book to read through frombeginning to end, but one to dip into, explore, examine from differentangles. As in the book itself, the so-called Editor attempts to piecetogether the shards of the philosopher-hero Teufelsdrockh's identity, sothe reader needs to plunge into, striking into its magical maze of ideas ... Read more

Book Description
The book that established Thomas Carlyle’s reputation when first published in 1837, this spectacular historical masterpiece has since been accepted as the standard work on the subject. It combines a shrewd insight into character, a vivid realization of the picturesque, and a singular ability to bring the past to blazing life, making it a reading experience as thrilling as any novel. As John D. Rosenberg observes in his Introduction, The French Revolution is “one of the grand poems of [Carlyle’s] century, yet its poetry consists in being everywhere scrupulously rooted in historical fact.”

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition, complete and unabridged, is unavailable anywhere else. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Odd for a History, but Valuable for its Oddity
This is indeed a very strange work of history; Carlyle narrates the events of the Revolution as those of a Victorian novel.It is difficult to convey a true sense of the hyper-dramatic prose that results, so it might be better to include some excerpts from the text:

The surrender of the Bastille:

"For four hours now has the World-Bedlam roared: call it the
World-Chimaera, blowing fire! The poor Invalides have sunk under their
battlements, or rise only with reversed muskets: they have made a white
flag of napkins; go beating the chamade, or seeming to beat, for one
can hear nothing. The very Swiss at the Portcullis look weary of firing;
disheartened in the fire-deluge: a porthole at the drawbridge is opened,
as by one that would speak. See Huissier Maillard, the shifty man! On
his plank, swinging over the abyss of that stone-Ditch; plank resting
on parapet, balanced by weight of Patriots,--he hovers perilous: such
a Dove towards such an Ark! Deftly, thou shifty Usher: one man already
fell; and lies smashed, far down there, against the masonry! Usher
Maillard falls not: deftly, unerring he walks, with outspread palm. The
Swiss holds a paper through his porthole; the shifty Usher snatches
it, and returns. Terms of surrender: Pardon, immunity to all! Are they
accepted?--"Foi d'officier, On the word of an officer," answers half-pay
Hulin,--or half-pay Elie, for men do not agree on it, "they are!" Sinks
the drawbridge,--Usher Maillard bolting it when down; rushes-in the
living deluge: the Bastille is fallen! Victoire! La Bastille est prise!"

The execution of Robespierre:

"At four in the afternoon, never before were the streets of Paris seen so
crowded. From the Palais de Justice to the Place de la Revolution, for
thither again go the Tumbrils this time, it is one dense stirring mass;
all windows crammed; the very roofs and ridge-tiles budding forth human
Curiosity, in strange gladness. The Death-tumbrils, with their motley
Batch of Outlaws, some Twenty-three or so, from Maximilien to
Mayor Fleuriot and Simon the Cordwainer, roll on. All eyes are on
Robespierre's Tumbril, where he, his jaw bound in dirty linen, with
his half-dead Brother, and half-dead Henriot, lie shattered; their
'seventeen hours' of agony about to end. The Gendarmes point their
swords at him, to shew the people which is he. A woman springs on
the Tumbril; clutching the side of it with one hand; waving the other
Sibyl-like; and exclaims: "The death of thee gladdens my very heart,
m'enivre de joie;" Robespierre opened his eyes; "Scelerat, go down to
Hell, with the curses of all wives and mothers!"--At the foot of the
scaffold, they stretched him on the ground till his turn came. Lifted
aloft, his eyes again opened; caught the bloody axe. Samson wrenched
the coat off him; wrenched the dirty linen from his jaw: the jaw fell
powerless, there burst from him a cry;--hideous to hear and see. Samson,
thou canst not be too quick!"

The book succeeds in portraying such of the more dramatic events of the Revolution with a striking immediacy that makes the book worthwhile.At other points, however, Carlyle frustrates by including lengthy passages of melodramatic commentary.

Lost its main point way to fast
This book falls into the classification of most French Revolution books that I have read. It loses focus in the complexity of the revolution and gets bogged down in way to much detail. Even if you know a lot about the revolution the analysis is too much and distracts from whatever his overall point is which was lost by about page 20.I had a hard time getting through it and if I had not needed to read it for class I would have stopped after the first 50 pages. Try the French Revolution and the Ancien Regime by Collins for a much better look at the French Revolution.

Unique Insight
"The French Revolution: A History" is an important book to learn about the French Revolution. Thomas Carlyle describes the interesting characters, turbulent events and the chaotic period of the Revolution.

The book was first published in 1837, thus benefitting from first hand account of events in the Revolution. This has its pros and cons to the value of the book since such first hand influence could dilute the objectivity of the author. However, Thomas Carlyle managed to produce a vivid and thoughtful account of events and leading characters involved in the Revolution.

The author uses a unique prose style which some readers may find interesting and poetic whilst others may find hard to comprehend. However, if looked at from its historical context, the writing style should make sense, particularly to those already familiar with the subject.

This is an informative and insightful book that is well worth reading.

at least give it a go
Definitely a classic.Don't be put off by the warnings other reviewers have about unfamiliar words and phrases: like any great writer, Carlyle does the work of presenting every event and person in a way to give us a feel for what was going on--at least in his vision of what happened between 1789-94 in France.The prose isn't straightforward, but you can get a summation of events straight from any encyclopedia or textbook: what Carlyle does is go much, much more in depth.Terms like 'Sansculottism' or 'sea-green Robespierre' bring very vivid impressions by the time you get near the end, and his insights into character and motive are amazingly vivid (no wonder George Eliot was impressed!)
This history does indeed read like a novel, and it really is quite good.Yes, there are unusual words and phrases (like Shakespeare, Carlyle coined and invented words, several now currently used in the language).That's all part of the fun though.The Modern Library edition has a good introduction, plus a timeline of events to orient you better while reading.
A very worthwhile and satisfactory book, current tastes not withstanding.

More of a Prose of the Intellect of the Writer
The author Thomas Carlyle presents the history of the French Revolution as a prophetic poetry of his intellect, and rightfully burned on his presentation for review.As reading this book realize the great store of words and meanings that suited his direction rather than the true nature of the French Revolution of the peoples.What an awful book! ... Read more

Book Description
Reprint of the "Sterling Edition" of Carlyle's Complete Works, in 20 volumesDownload Description
Thoughts on the "Great Men" of history by the 19th centuries greatest historian ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Truly original
There are not many books sold at Amazon.com that were written almost two centuries ago. There might be a few written a few millenniums ago but they are mostly translations. There is something special when one reads the spoken word untranslated. Only in its original form, words have the mysterious effect that let the reader have a special connection with the author.

Carlyle was Scottish and lived in England, but he had close relations with the "New World" and had readers in United States. He had a lifelong friendship with an influential American Philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. At his time, there were not many philosophers who witnessed the industrial revolution but still kept a transcendental and not a materialistic view of the world. In the 19th century, Materialism was in full swing, and the people in the West were mesmerized by the scientific technological advances of the times and running away from God like herds of cattle, just like the way intellectuals of the East did a century later. Carlyle, Emerson, Thoreau and a few others were the only exceptions in the West that still tried to keep what is beyond the "apparent" in focus or at least in search of it. Bediuzzaman tried to do the same with the voice of Qur'an and called the people to what is beyond the apparent in the face of materialism in the East in the 20th century. One interesting observation I have to point out, is that one common theme among these Western Philosophers; many were all influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg, famous 18th century Swedish Philosopher

In Heroes and Hero Worship Thomas Carlyle makes an attempt to draw a picture of the development of human intellect by using historical people as coordinates. There are people who has a perspective of history in terms of "environment" and "times" and "causes" while others like Carlyle has the view that human advancement was not continues but discrete and these jumps were mainly due to specific individuals he calls "Heroes". This is like the wave - particle duality of the "nature of light".In some phenomenon Light behaves like a wave in others like a particle. One can write a history based on ideas, cultures and mediums in which people lived, or the same history could be written by taking certain individuals and following them and their actions.

Writings of many other authors of that time and Carlyle's of course are very perceptive. Carlyle does not really care to be objective on the matter. He has an idea and he wants to tell you that idea and when telling you what that idea is, he uses whatever his hands and mind get hold of. Being so passionate about what you are telling is probably a good thing. But if one overdoes it, one cannot help but show wild swings in appreciation of the historical person in question. If we use the drawing analogy, his historical person becomes no longer a point on the painting but a thread on the brush. But that should not prevent us from benefiting from his writings.

Muhammad (PBUH) has a special place in the book under the chapter title "Hero as a Prophet". In the book Carlyle declares his admiration of Muhammad (PBUH). Carlyle's answers to pointed questions on Islam and Muhammad (PBUH) showed interesting similarities to Bediuzzaman's line of answers to similar questions. ......

Considering the fact that while the West and East were at odds and the means of communications were quite inferior to our times, seeing Carlyle having such an open mind to the "other" puts him in a category of his own with others like Swedenborg, Emerson and Thoreau. I think when we are trying to build bridges between the peoples of the West and the East we should not overlook these early historical representatives of that dialogue, as Bediuzzaman foresees in his writings.

We can't do without Heroes
This is an extraordinary work, let modern liberal critics say what they will of their 'mass movements' and 'diversity'.Long after they and their productions have bitten the dust, Carlyle will continue to speak to the enlightened few, and perhaps one day, it is to be hoped, to the enlightened many.

This work is much more than just a study of various influential men in history.Carlyle has very interesting notions of the historical process itself, the spread of religions and their demise, the importance of "true belief" in things, as opposed the unbelief that merely follows rituals and procedures.For Carlyle, true belief, is the beginning of morality, all success, all good things in this world; Unbelief, scepticism, the beginning of all corruption, quackery, falsehood.Unbelief, for instance, is at the root of all materialist philosophies, eg Utilitarianism which find human beings to be nothing more thanclever, pleasure-seeking bipeds.It is also at the root of all democratic theories: faith in a democratic system means despair of finding an honest man to lead us.

Whether one agrees with Carlyle or not in his appraisal of democratic and other systems, one must admit, at least, that very little good is to be gotten from "the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries."If we have no honest men in government or in business, but only a bunch of self-interested quacks, then we cannot expect any system, however ingenious, to save us. Even the most skilled architect will not be able to construct a great building, if you give him only hollow, cracked bricks to build it with. Find your honest men, says Carlyle, and get them into the positions of influence; only then will it be well with you.

Praise for the individual
Six lectures delivered by Carlyle in 1840. He classifies six kinds of heroes: as Divinity (Wotan, paganism); Prophet (Mohamed); Poet (Dante, Shakespeare); Priest (Luther, Knox); Man of Letters (Johnson, Rousseau, Burns); and Ruler (Cromwell, Napoleon). The trait that defines a hero is: absolute sincerity and firm belief in his principles.

In his highly rhetorical lectures, Carlyle highlights and reinforces the role of the individual in the social process, as opposed to the role of the masses. And he did that precisely when the foundations were being laid for the most influential "pro-mass" movement in History: Marxism. The tragedy of Marxism, at least one of them all, is that, when translated into action, the blind masses were also led by "heroes" of the most authocratic sort.Not properly the work of an historian, these lectures are vivid, inflamed and enthusiast. Their uselfuness for our present age is precisely that they remind us of the crucial role significant individuals play in history, to accelerate or slow down (and even reverse) the process of social change, which is usually more gradual, diffused, and diverse.

Six vigorous meditations on the role of the hero in history.
Carlyle is not properly a historian or a philosopher, but a moralist, a fervent admirer of excellence, and a prose-poet of the first rank.Six meditations deal respectively of the hero as: Divinity, Prophet, Poet,Priest, Man of Letters, and King.If this book can't rightly be shelvedwith philosophy or history, it belongs in Literature with a capital"L," and Poetry.Carlylye loved the English Language and used itmasterfully, energetically, and reverentially, without a trace of thetrivial overindulgence of self-conscious and self-absorbed"poets." ... Read more

Book Description
"A Carlyle Reader" constitutes the most substantial one-volume presentation of representative writings of the great Victorian prose writer, historian, philosopher and social critic-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). It contains the full text of Carlyle's seminal work "Sartor Resartus" as well as the full text of five of his most influential essays. It also offers general selections from "The French Revolution", "Past and Present", "On Heroes and Hero Worship", and the celebrated Coleridge chapter from "The Life of John Sterling". In addition to offering a rich sampling of Carlyle in all his various literary manifestations, this volume enables the the reder to study Carlyle chronologically, the first entry being from 1823 and the last from 1876. The almost forty pages of introductory material provide a biographical overview of Carlyle's life, a presentation of his leading ideas and a discussion of his unique prose style. There is a bibliography of secondary writings and a chronology of Carlyle's life. Every section is preceded by an explanatory introduction by the editor. ... Read more

Book Description
1858. Volume 1 of a 6 volume set. Scottish-born British historian and essayist who was a leading figure in the Victorian era. Partial Contents: Birth and Parentage; Of Brandenburg and the Hohenzollerns; The Hohenzollerns in Brandenburg; Friedrich_s Apprenticeship, First Stage; Double-Marriage Project, and What Element It Fell Into; Double-Marriage Project and Crown-Prince Going Adrift Under the Storm Winds; Fearful Shipwreck of the Double-Marriage Project. See other works by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Book Description
A stunning new joint biography from the acclaimed author of George Eliot.

The Carlyles lived at the heart of English life in mid-Victorian London, but both were outsiders, a Scottish pair who looked caustically at the society they so influenced -- Carlyle through his copious writings, and both through their network of acquaintances and correspondents. This is not only a portrait of a marriage but a picture of an age. It is elegant, erudite and entertaining. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an excellent biography of a famously unhappy couple
As I expected from Ashton (having read her admirable biographies of George Eliot and G.H. Lewes), this is an excellent biography, thorough and well-researched.Ashton is sympathetic to both Carlyles, who had a famously unhappy marriage, yet objective, never taking sides; she understands Carlyle's tortured genius and neglect of his wife as well as Jane's self-pity and repressed talents and observantly shows how their difficult personalities interacted with each other as well as with their friends and family. ... Read more

Book Description
This is an electronic book on four diskettes.

These works are here presented in a public domain edition.

The material on these diskettes is in plain (ASCII) text, formatted for a PC (not Macintosh). You can manipulate it with your favorite word processing program to enhance the format or to print outDisk #1 (1.1 Mbytes) -- On Heroes and Hero Worship, Latter-Day Pamplets

Disk #2 (1.1 Mbytes) -- Sartor Resartus, Life of John Sterling
Disk #3 (1.2 Mbytes) -- The French Revolution, volumes 1 and 2
Disk #4 (1 Mbyte) -- The French Revolution, volume 3, Early Kings of Norway

See also, History of Friedrich II of Prussia by Thomas Carlyle (21 volumes on 8 diskettes) ISBN 0915232855 ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1858 edition by Chapman and Hall, London. ... Read more

Product Description
The decade from 1820 to 1830 was a period of unusual dulness in English thought and imagination. All the great literary reputations belonged to the beginning of the century, Byron, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, had said their say. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Letters between contemporaneous friends
The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume 1, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, presents a most intriguing view into the intellectual and personal lives of two outstanding men of letters dominant of their time.Works reveal the minds; letters reveal the inner lives and views of the world in which they lived.Works are thoughts distilled; letters reveal perspective of their world. For this student works and letters are at once revealing and valuable. ... Read more

Book Description
1839. Volume 1 of a 3 volume set. Scottish-born British historian and essayist who was a leading figure in the Victorian era. Contents: Jean Paul Friedrich Richter; State of German Literature; Life and Writings of Werner; Goethe_s Helena; Goethe; Burns; The Life of Heyne; German Playwrights; Voltaire; Signs of the Times; Novalis; On History; Jean Paul Friedrich Richter; and Luther_s Psalm. See other works by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Volume 2 ISBN 0766187578, Volume 3 ISBN 0766187586. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Mostly about Chaucer and Stevenson.
The title is a little deceptive.In fact, this book is mostly about Chaucer and his era, 220 pages worth.Stevenson gets a fair shake at 106 pages.But Carlyle gets only 12 pages, and Tolstoy only four, and those arather simplistic critique of his philosophy.So only buy the book ifyou're interested in the former two writers.

As in most of Chesterton'sbiographies, the story of the subject's life is of minor interest here,compared to a philosophical and artistic description of the subject's worksin the context of his time and "modern times."Chesterton isinterested in the writer as a thinker, as a creator, and as a moral agent. In defending Stevenson and Chaucer, he argues for his view of Christianity,poetry, love, and artistic humility.If you want his religious views in apurer form, go to the brilliant Orthodoxy or Everlasting Man. If you want adetailed narration of the lives of the writers in question, look elsewhere. And even for this style of biography, I think his book on Dickens was thebest I've read.But I found his opinionated description and defense ofChaucer and his times also very interesting.And while he does not scatterbrilliant sayings like rose petals at a wedding, as in his best books,(reading Everlasting Man, I wanted to copy every other sentence) a fewblossoms do flutter down, like the following, which also explainChesterton's method:

"The truly impartial historian is not he who isenthusiastic for neither side in a historical struggle. ..The trulyimpartial historian is he who is enthusiastic for both sides.He holds inhis heart a hundred fanaticisms."

"The greatest poets of theworld have a certain serenity, because they have not bothered to invent asmall philosophy, but have rather inherited a large philosophy.It is,nine times out of ten, a philosophy which very great men share with veryordinary men.It is therefore not a theory which attracts attention as atheory."

Author, Jesus and the Religions of Man (July2000)

d.marshall@sun.ac.jp

Chesterton!
G.K. Chesterton, best known for his Father Brown detective stories, also stands out as a remarkable literary critic.He is most astute on Stevenson, his greatest influence, rightly seeing him as the first greatwriter to find beauty in a modern city.A must! ... Read more

Book Description
First published in 1843. In the Introduction, Ralph Waldo Emerson says, " Here is Carlyle's new poem, his Iliad of English woes, to follow his poem on France, entitled the History of the French Revolution.In its first aspect it is a political tract, and since Burke, since Milton, we have had nothing to compare with it.It grapples honestly with the facts lying before all men, groups and disposes them with a master's mind, and, with a heart full of manly tenderness, offers his best counsel to his brothers." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Salvation for the Western World
A review of Carlyle's Past and Present written in Carlylese (he's much better at it than I am...)

This book could change the whole Western world, if only men would read it, and believe it! -We could have several Utopias springing up in North American and throughout Europe within the space of five years! So here you are. In this work, Carlyle criticizes the social, economic, and political arrangements in England of the 1840s. I will not bother to explain what those arrangements were; I will only say that his criticism is as relevant to us now as it was to the people of his own time. My friends, very simply put, then as now, we have 'parted company with the eternal inner Facts of this Universe, and followed the outer transient Appearances thereof...[we] have forgotten the right Inner True, and taken up with the Outer Sham-true.' Yes Carlyle's English is a bit strange, but try not to be distracted by outer appearances, that is his point! In many aspects of our Western life, we have forgotten what is true and at the heart of the matter, and taken up with superficial nonsense.

Let's begin with economics. In Carlyle's day, the Industrialists were trying their damnedest to figure out a way to make the production of cotton cheaper. This is a sham! Instead, figure out a way, with all your cotton cloth, to 'cover all the backs of England.' How like our present day Global Economists, wracking their brains trying to get the poor fools of the Third World to buy our products. Why don't they stop a moment and see if everyone at home is yet sufficiently provided for. Do your own fellow citizens need what you are producing, or have they enough of it, need they some other product which it is in your power to produce? And what is this of Advertising? Carlyle remembers a hat-maker who built a seven-foot hat of wood and plaster; wheeled it about the streets of London to attract customers to his shop. Does this improve the quality or utility of your hats, man, or does it only fool people into thinking that you have done honest work? I begin to think that more money is made in Advertising in these times of ours than in any other enterprise. What are our cities but places to tack up Billboards, to display Clothes in shop windows, to produce commercials for television, all to fool people into buying rubbish they don't need. Don't Advertise, Just Work!

Religion? Why all the silly ceremonies, the controversies, feuding between different sects. Do we need absurd ceremonies and idolatrous rituals to believe in a Divine Power? True Religion is 'Moral Conscience, Inner Light' 'All Religion [is] here to remind us, better or worse, of what we already know, better or worse, of the quite infinite difference between a Good man, and a Bad, to bid us love infinitely the one, abhor infinitely the other, to strive infinitely to be the one, and not the other.' A Religious man is he who makes his whole life an appeal to Heaven, to Divine Justice, to Goodness, and who cannot be happy if he do not always choose the right thing for his family, his country, his God and himself.

Politics? Why do we continue to elect Bill Slicktons and Tony Blears, vicious Garry Condits and brainless Bushes, when these rotten Governors have in their own souls nothing to govern by. They are play-actors, nothing more, and very poor ones at that. Behind the smile, the make-up, the $400 hair-cut lies only one thing: 'impudent dishonesty--brazen insensibility to lying and to making others lie' Look into the souls of such men and what will you see: 'a general grey twilight, looming with shapes of expediencies, parliamentary traditions, division lists [like opinion polls], election-funds, leading articles...' The true leader, on the other hand, is a hero: he wants none of our material rewards, fears none of our punishments, believes that there is such a thing as eternal justice, will stop at nothing until he has made life better, happier, more fruitful for his fellow citizens. How do we elect such a man, instead of another politician, that is, another professional liar, wood and plaster dummy? We as voters must cease to vote wrong! How is that to be accomplished? Well that is not so easily done. We must all awaken from this state of enchantment, says Carlyle, must begin to learn to distinguish just and unjust, admirable and despicable in our fellow men, and in ourselves. READ THE BOOK!!!

Buyer beware!!
This is for sure a great book, if you have the ability to concentrate for more than five minutes, unlike the majority of the Herd, in mean people, of today.If your intrest lies in the substance of this book, read some other review, I'm only going to tell you that, the (1909) publication, stinks; the so called book, is more like a oversized magizine, and the print is about the size of a footnote in the bible.

The Best Carlyle- As lucid as Acid
Widely known is the lucid and acid historic sense of Thomas Carlyle. This is what you will find in this book. More accessible than the monumental 'Sartor Resartus', but at the same high level. I strongly recomend thatbook as a way to enter into the vivid world of Carlyle. ... Read more

Book Description
Sartor Resartus is Thomas Carlyle's most enduring and influential work. First published in serial form in Fraser's Magazine in 1833-1834, it was discovered by the American Transcendentalists. Sponsored by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it was first printed as a book in Boston in 1836 and immediately became the inspiration for the Transcendental movement. The first London trade edition was published in 1838. By the 1840s, largely on the strength of Sartor Resartus, Carlyle became one of the leading literary figures in Britain.
Sartor Resartus became one of the important texts of nineteenth-century English literature, central to the Romantic movement and Victorian culture. At the time of Carlyle's death in 1881, more than 69,000 copies had been sold. The post-Victorian influence continued and extends to writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, Willa Cather and Ernest Hemingway.
This edition of Sartor Resartus is the first publication of the work that uses all extant versions to create an accurate authorial text. This volume, the second in an eight-volume series, includes a complete textual apparatus as well as a historical introduction and full critical and explanatory annotation. ... Read more