The French Revolution

Thomas Carlyle

May 2012 · Courier Corporation

About this ebook

The product of a powerful and original mind, this is the history that introduced English-speaking people to the full meaning and tragedy of the French Revolution. First published in 1837, this pioneering work established Thomas Carlyle's reputation as a historian of enduring scholarly and popular appeal. His scrupulous attention to facts and details, combined with his eloquence, poetic style, and moral energy, convey a spirited sense of reality. The dramatic narrative is populated by vivid characterizations of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Mirabeau, Danton, Robespierre, Lafayette, Marat, and other heroes and villains of the era.
"No novelist has made his creations live for us more thoroughly than Carlyle has made the men of the French Revolution," observed George Eliot. In his company, the scenes of the Revolution are plainly visible, and the pages of this book offer a walk through the streets of eighteenth-century Paris with a well-informed guide. This abridged edition represents the best introduction to Carlyle's masterpiece for students and history buffs.

About the author

Thomas Carlyle was a social critic and historian born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, December 4, 1795, the same year as John Keats, but Carlyle is considered an early Victorian rather than a Romantic. After completing his elementary studies, he went to the University of Edinburgh but left in 1814 without a degree. His parents wanted him to become a minister in the Scottish church, but his independence of spirit made such a life program impossible. In 1816 he fell in love with, and was rejected by, a young woman. His love affair was followed by a period of doubt and uncertainty described vividly in Sartor Resartus, a work published in 1833 that attracted much attention. Carlyle's first literary work reveals his admiration for German thought and philosophy, and especially for the two great German poets Schiller and Goethe. The fictional autobiography of a philosopher deeply impressed Ralph Waldo Emerson who brought it back to the United States to be published there. History of the French Revolution (1837), rewritten after parts of it were mistakenly burned as kindling by John Stuart Mill, cemented Carlyle's reputation. The work brought him fame but no great wealth. As a result of his comparative poverty he was induced to give four series of public lectures. Of these the most famous were those On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic of History delivered in 1840 and published in 1841. Past and Present (1843), and Latter Day Pamphlets (1850) present his economic and industrial theories. With The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell (1845), The Life of John Sterling (1851), and History of Frederick II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great (1858-1865) he returned to biography. In 1865, Carlyle was made Lord Rector of Edinburgh.