EARLY LIFE

Born in Ecclefechan, a small village in Scotland, Thomas Carlyle was the eldest child of a large family. His mother, Margaret, was illiterate, and his father, James Carlyle, was a strict irascible puritan, but withal a man of rigid probity and strength of character. “Frugality, hard work, a tender but undemonstrative family loyalty, and a peculiar blend of self-denial and self-righteousness were characteristic features of Carlyle’s childhood home” (Norton Anthology). Carlyle was educated at Annon Academy as well as Edinburgh University, where he took a special interest in Mathematics. His parents desperately hoped for their son to become a clergyman, but Carlyle had a different plan in mind.

WRITINGS

Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Carlyle James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1873) Oil on canvas Collection: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland.

Carlyle had a reputation as a crotchety, argumentative, somewhat disagreeable man and his prose style very much mirrored his personality. He suffered from stomach agonies and gastric complaints which continued to torment him all his life, and may well have played a large part in shaping the rugged, rude fabric of his philosophy and writing style. Here is a list of his works:

• Signs of the Times (1829)
• Sartor Resartus (1833)
• The French Revolution: A History (1837)
• Chartism (1840)
• On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic In History (1841)
• Past and Present (1843)
• Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (1845)
• Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849)
• Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850)
• The Life of John Sterling (1851)
• History of Friedrich II of Prussia (1858)
• Shooting Niagra (1867)
• The Early Kings of Norway (1875)
• Reminiscences (1881)

From 1824 onward, Thomas Carlyle relied exclusively on his writings for his livelihood. His early writings consisted of translations, biographies, and critical studies on the “German Romantics,” a group which influenced him deeply.

JANE BAILLIE WELSH

Jane Baillie Welsh was a daughter of a surgeon, John Welsh, and was considered very beautiful, precociously learned, talented, and a brilliant mistress of cynical satire. Among her numerous suitors, the rough, uncouth Carlyle at first made an ill impression; but a literary correspondence was begun, and on October 17, 1826, after a courtship that was in some sort a battle of strong wills, the two were married and went to live at Comely Bank, Edinburgh. Their marriage proved to be one of the most famous, well documented, and unhappy of literary unions. Over 9000 letters between Carlyle and his wife have been published showing the couple had an affection for each other marred by frequent and angry quarrels. Carlyle became increasingly alienated from his wife, and some believe that the marriage remained unconsummated. Although she had been an invalid for some time, his wife’s sudden death from heart disease in 1866 was unexpected and it greatly distressed Carlyle who was moved to write his highly self-critical “Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle”, published posthumously. After Jane Carlyle’s death in 1866, he fell into a dark depression that lasted for the rest of his life, and Carlyle partly retired from active society following the loss of Jane.

HIS LASTING EFFECT

Carlyle’s personal character and his philosophy are alike full of contradictions and hardly susceptible to summary exposition. An apostle of courage and endurance, he was yet the most vociferous and ungracious of grumblers. His love for his wife was deep and abiding, yet her life with him was often a torment. While he abhorred philanthropy and liberal legislation along utilitarian lines, and came more and more to admire despotism, he could be scathing about the “game-preserving aristocracy” and in his personal life was quick to relieve distress.No coherent body of philosophy can be extracted from his teachings: it is rather as a prophet and a seer that he has his place. He was blind to the greatest phenomenon of his age — the rise of science as an interpreter of the universe — and spoke insultingly of Darwin. Formal economics also incurred his censure. His theological attitude is hardest of all to define. At an early age he found himself unable to subscribe to any of the orthodox creeds, but he was even more condemnatory of atheism, and never ceased to believe passionately in a personal God. His central tenet was the worship of strength; and, after beginning as a radical, he came to despise the democratic system and increasingly to extol the value and necessity of strong and stern government, in which the people themselves should have no share.

Newspaper Article describing Carlyle’s writing style, 1855. “Literature.” Illustrated London News [London, England] 10 Nov. 1855: 566. Illustrated London News. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

In literature he was the pioneer. His literary judgments were penetrating, and just. As a historian he is in the highest rank. Bating certain unimportant errors of detail, he illumined the past with astonishing insight and made his personages actual and his scenes dramatic. His style is an extraordinary farrago, leaping not flowing, coining strange words and performing extravagant evolutions; yet cumulatively it impresses as a great style, suffused with humor, irony, and passion; impossible to imitate, utterly personal, burning, and convincing.