Everyman's University Library
1 total work
Thomas Carlyle was one of the most influential commentators of the 19th century: writer, critic, historian, biographer and brilliant correspondent, he dominated his age. Described as "the greatest writer of his time" his "Reminiscences" trace triumphs, sorrows, and achievements of his often turbulent marriage with Jane Welsh. Devastated by his wife's death, Carlyle set down his recollections of their life together, in an account that reveals much about his own character. The work also recalls Thomas's father, James Carlyle, and his strong sense of identity growing up in Scotland. Jane Carlyle's early loves, Francis Jeffrey (editor of the "Edinburgh Review") and the minister Edward Irving who was destroyed by the mockery of "speaking with tongues", are also remembered, alongside the poets Southey and Wordsworth. Hurriedly published in 1881, the year of Carlyle's death, the "Reminiscences" provoked outrage for their outspokenness. This edition restores the cuts of its first editor and aims to offer a complete and authoritative text, and an introduction to some extraordinary mid-century Victorians.