On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History

by Carlye, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780520075153
• ISBN10: 0520075153
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

In his 1840 lectures on heroes, Thomas Carlyle, Victorian essayist and social critic, championed the importance of the individual in history. Published the following year and eventually translated into fifteen languages, this imaginative work of history, comparative religion, and literature is the most influential statement of a man who came to be thought of as a secular prophet and the "undoubted head of English letters" (Emerson). His vivid portraits of Muhammad, Dante, Luther, Napoleon--just a few of the individuals Carlyle celebrated for changing the course of world history--madeOn Heroesa challenge to the anonymous social forces threatening to control life during the Industrial Revolution. In eight volumes, The Strouse Edition will provide the texts of Carlyle's major works edited for the first time to contemporary scholarly standards. For the general reader, its detailed introductions and annotations will offer insight into the author's thought and a reconstruction of the diverse and often arcane Carlylean sources.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Chronology of Carlyle's Life
Introduction
Note on the Text
The Hero as Divinity	p. 3
The Hero as Prophet	p. 37
The Hero as Poet	p. 67
The Hero as Priest	p. 99
The Hero as Man of Letters	p. 133
The Hero as King	p. 169
Appendix: 1858 Summary and Index	p. 211
Notes	p. 227
Works Cited	p. 393
Textual Apparatus
Emendations of the Copy-Text	p. 421
Discussion of Editorial Decisions	p. 431
Line-End Hyphens in the Copy-Text	p. 441
Line-End Hyphens in the Present Text	p. 443
Historical Collation	p. 445
Index	p. 487
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