Loved reading this, thank you! At some point long ago I read all of the collected letters of the Carlyles to each other. The funny thing is that although I remember finding them fascinating, I remember very little of their content now, so this was especially nice.
I had become interested in both Carlyles, oddly enough, mostly because of Jane, due to Leigh Hunt's marvelous poem.
For those who don't know the story, Hunt was a friend of the couple's and was said to have died during a wave of flu; instead he walked unexpectedly into a gathering, perfectly fine. The poem is about's Jane Carlyle's reaction to his entrance.
It's funny how things circle around to each other, isn't it? I think that I first encountered the poem in some large mainstream poetry anthology — the Oxford Book of English Verse, or some such thing — but first heard the story behind it in a wonderful little book called the Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes that I came across in my early teens and devoured. (It had the story of the burned MS, too.)
And even though Thomas is the one I read about in later studies, Jane, because of the poem, was the reason I nabbed the collected letters in a used bookstore a decade later. And now here is the link with your book, which is here and being slowly dipped into!
This is fascinating, Sarah and makes Carlyle less of a 'great man' and more of a brilliant but flawed individual. I'm a fan of Phyllis Rose's book and it's maybe because of this (and his own mea culpa biography of her) that Jane tends to overshadow him these days!
“Carlyle [was] seen by me several times at my brother’s house, and two or three times at my own house. His talk was very racy and interesting, just like his writings, but he sometimes went on too long on the same subject. I remember a funny dinner at my brother’s, where, amongst a few others, were [Charles] Babbage and [Charles] Lyell, both of whom liked to talk. Carlyle, however, silenced every one by haranguing during the whole dinner on the advantages of silence. After dinner Babbage, in his grimmest manner, thanked Carlyle for his very interesting lecture on silence.
“Carlyle sneered at almost every one: one day in my house he called Grote’s ‘History’ "a fetid quagmire, with nothing spiritual about it." I always thought, until his ‘Reminiscences’ appeared, that his sneers were partly jokes, but this now seems rather doubtful. His expression was that of a depressed, almost despondent yet benevolent man; and it is notorious how heartily he laughed. I believe that his benevolence was real, though stained by not a little jealousy. No one can doubt about his extraordinary power of drawing pictures of things and men—far more vivid, as it appears to me, than any drawn by Macaulay. Whether his pictures of men were true ones is another question.”
Great post. All I know of Carlyle is that he was one of so-called 'great men of history'. It's amazing what one accepted in one's youth as 'greatness'. Also, from the picture, he seems to have a remarkably noticeable pair of ears...
I first came across him as part of the historiography module in my history degree and I think probably wrote an exam answer on that history is the biography of great men quote so I'm not much of a fan...
I loved this; it's just fascinating. I knew little of Thomas Carlyle and his connections with the Macmillan brothers (okay, fair, nothing), but this is both captivating and insightful. Your balanced perspective on his complex legacy and engaging writing style makes for a compelling read.
This is so interesting Sarah, thank you! What a fab place to give a talk.
All I really knew about Carlyle is that Nancy Mitford read him a lot, I remember she wrote a marvellous essay about his book on Fred the Great. And liked that he said Scotch not Scottish.
Also claimed to find him very funny but that was maybe just Nancy....
I wonder if there is a relation to John Carlyle of Alexandria, Virginia. He was born in England and became a founding father of Alexandria. I got married in his garden. https://visitalexandria.com/listings/carlyle-house-4/
Loved reading this, thank you! At some point long ago I read all of the collected letters of the Carlyles to each other. The funny thing is that although I remember finding them fascinating, I remember very little of their content now, so this was especially nice.
I had become interested in both Carlyles, oddly enough, mostly because of Jane, due to Leigh Hunt's marvelous poem.
For those who don't know the story, Hunt was a friend of the couple's and was said to have died during a wave of flu; instead he walked unexpectedly into a gathering, perfectly fine. The poem is about's Jane Carlyle's reaction to his entrance.
Jenny kiss'd me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,
Say I'm growing old, but add
Jenny kiss'd me.
(Text of poem is from Wikipedia's page on it)
I knew that poem but I had no idea who it was about
It's funny how things circle around to each other, isn't it? I think that I first encountered the poem in some large mainstream poetry anthology — the Oxford Book of English Verse, or some such thing — but first heard the story behind it in a wonderful little book called the Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes that I came across in my early teens and devoured. (It had the story of the burned MS, too.)
And even though Thomas is the one I read about in later studies, Jane, because of the poem, was the reason I nabbed the collected letters in a used bookstore a decade later. And now here is the link with your book, which is here and being slowly dipped into!
This is fascinating, Sarah and makes Carlyle less of a 'great man' and more of a brilliant but flawed individual. I'm a fan of Phyllis Rose's book and it's maybe because of this (and his own mea culpa biography of her) that Jane tends to overshadow him these days!
Charles Darwin on Thomas Carlyle:
“Carlyle [was] seen by me several times at my brother’s house, and two or three times at my own house. His talk was very racy and interesting, just like his writings, but he sometimes went on too long on the same subject. I remember a funny dinner at my brother’s, where, amongst a few others, were [Charles] Babbage and [Charles] Lyell, both of whom liked to talk. Carlyle, however, silenced every one by haranguing during the whole dinner on the advantages of silence. After dinner Babbage, in his grimmest manner, thanked Carlyle for his very interesting lecture on silence.
“Carlyle sneered at almost every one: one day in my house he called Grote’s ‘History’ "a fetid quagmire, with nothing spiritual about it." I always thought, until his ‘Reminiscences’ appeared, that his sneers were partly jokes, but this now seems rather doubtful. His expression was that of a depressed, almost despondent yet benevolent man; and it is notorious how heartily he laughed. I believe that his benevolence was real, though stained by not a little jealousy. No one can doubt about his extraordinary power of drawing pictures of things and men—far more vivid, as it appears to me, than any drawn by Macaulay. Whether his pictures of men were true ones is another question.”
Fascinating quote, thank you
Great post. All I know of Carlyle is that he was one of so-called 'great men of history'. It's amazing what one accepted in one's youth as 'greatness'. Also, from the picture, he seems to have a remarkably noticeable pair of ears...
I first came across him as part of the historiography module in my history degree and I think probably wrote an exam answer on that history is the biography of great men quote so I'm not much of a fan...
I loved this; it's just fascinating. I knew little of Thomas Carlyle and his connections with the Macmillan brothers (okay, fair, nothing), but this is both captivating and insightful. Your balanced perspective on his complex legacy and engaging writing style makes for a compelling read.
This is so interesting Sarah, thank you! What a fab place to give a talk.
All I really knew about Carlyle is that Nancy Mitford read him a lot, I remember she wrote a marvellous essay about his book on Fred the Great. And liked that he said Scotch not Scottish.
Also claimed to find him very funny but that was maybe just Nancy....
I wonder if there is a relation to John Carlyle of Alexandria, Virginia. He was born in England and became a founding father of Alexandria. I got married in his garden. https://visitalexandria.com/listings/carlyle-house-4/
Isn’t there a story about the Carlyle’s maid giving birth in a cupboard?
Hah, I hope so. I would have put it in if I'd known
I think it’s in Thea Holmes book