A review of Carlyle's Past and Present written in Carlylese (he's much better at it than I am...)

This book could change the whole Western world, if only men would read it, and believe it! -We could have several Utopias springing up in North American and throughout Europe within the space of five years! So here you are. In this work, Carlyle criticizes the social, economic, and political arrangements in England of the 1840s. I will not bother to explain what those arrangements were; I will only say that his criticism is as relevant to us now as it was to the people of his own time. My friends, very simply put, then as now, we have 'parted company with the eternal inner Facts of this Universe, and followed the outer transient Appearances thereof...[we] have forgotten the right Inner True, and taken up with the Outer Sham-true.' Yes Carlyle's English is a bit strange, but try not to be distracted by outer appearances, that is his point! In many aspects of our Western life, we have forgotten what is true and at the heart of the matter, and taken up with superficial nonsense.

Let's begin with economics. In Carlyle's day, the Industrialists were trying their damnedest to figure out a way to make the production of cotton cheaper. This is a sham! Instead, figure out a way, with all your cotton cloth, to 'cover all the backs of England.' How like our present day Global Economists, wracking their brains trying to get the poor fools of the Third World to buy our products. Why don't they stop a moment and see if everyone at home is yet sufficiently provided for. Do your own fellow citizens need what you are producing, or have they enough of it, need they some other product which it is in your power to produce? And what is this of Advertising? Carlyle remembers a hat-maker who built a seven-foot hat of wood and plaster; wheeled it about the streets of London to attract customers to his shop. Does this improve the quality or utility of your hats, man, or does it only fool people into thinking that you have done honest work? I begin to think that more money is made in Advertising in these times of ours than in any other enterprise. What are our cities but places to tack up Billboards, to display Clothes in shop windows, to produce commercials for television, all to fool people into buying rubbish they don't need. Don't Advertise, Just Work!

Religion? Why all the silly ceremonies, the controversies, feuding between different sects. Do we need absurd ceremonies and idolatrous rituals to believe in a Divine Power? True Religion is 'Moral Conscience, Inner Light' 'All Religion [is] here to remind us, better or worse, of what we already know, better or worse, of the quite infinite difference between a Good man, and a Bad, to bid us love infinitely the one, abhor infinitely the other, to strive infinitely to be the one, and not the other.' A Religious man is he who makes his whole life an appeal to Heaven, to Divine Justice, to Goodness, and who cannot be happy if he do not always choose the right thing for his family, his country, his God and himself.

Politics? Why do we continue to elect Bill Slicktons and Tony Blears, vicious Garry Condits and brainless Bushes, when these rotten Governors have in their own souls nothing to govern by. They are play-actors, nothing more, and very poor ones at that. Behind the smile, the make-up, the $400 hair-cut lies only one thing: 'impudent dishonesty--brazen insensibility to lying and to making others lie' Look into the souls of such men and what will you see: 'a general grey twilight, looming with shapes of expediencies, parliamentary traditions, division lists [like opinion polls], election-funds, leading articles...' The true leader, on the other hand, is a hero: he wants none of our material rewards, fears none of our punishments, believes that there is such a thing as eternal justice, will stop at nothing until he has made life better, happier, more fruitful for his fellow citizens. How do we elect such a man, instead of another politician, that is, another professional liar, wood and plaster dummy? We as voters must cease to vote wrong! How is that to be accomplished? Well that is not so easily done. We must all awaken from this state of enchantment, says Carlyle, must begin to learn to distinguish just and unjust, admirable and despicable in our fellow men, and in ourselves. READ THE BOOK!!!

This is for sure a great book, if you have the ability to concentrate for more than five minutes, unlike the majority of the Herd, in mean people, of today. If your intrest lies in the substance of this book, read some other review, I'm only going to tell you that, the (1909) publication, stinks; the so called book, is more like a oversized magizine, and the print is about the size of a footnote in the bible.

Widely known is the lucid and acid historic sense of Thomas Carlyle. This is what you will find in this book. More accessible than the monumental 'Sartor Resartus', but at the same high level. I strongly recomend that book as a way to enter into the vivid world of Carlyle.

By far the best, fairest and most profound book on Carlyle yet published. I absolutely recommend it to anyone fascinated by this quirky, brilliant and frustrating writer. Rosenberg's elucidation of Carlyle's language and thought in his great history 'The French Revolution' leaves me breathless with admiration.

Is there anything else to say? Karl the 12th of Sweden is a fascinating man with history to match. Voltaire's prose reads like a great fictional novel and provides philisophical insight into the times and life of Sweden's greatest king.

As the books run through, page by page, volume by volume, I am so taken by the author's thorough, rich and comprehenseive knowledge of the history of 18th-Century, militarily, politically, diplomatically and geographically. The author sets the whole stage of European history of that century in front of readers. The power and strength lie in this titanic biography, which turns out to consist of six volumes which totaling more than three thousand pages long, is not only on its sweeping and extensive knowledge of the history in detail, but also on the fact that the author possesses a vast, wide and precious first-hand materials of the King's age, which range from newpapers to memoirs, from documents to correspondences. This is really a comprehensive accounts about this great King in every field, in every turn of history : His stern, unhappy and strict self-trained youth which is astoundingly different from any princes in history, his tremendous merits in military which ranked him to the transcendent generals of the world, his remarkable achievements in domestic reform and reconstruction which hailed him as a great ruler in 18th- Century, his grand attainments in diplomacy which made him known as a prominent diplomat of his time, and his sensational accomplishment in literature which enlisted him as an extraordinarily intellectual prince and man of letters in his century. The author reveals many excellent personalities and qualities of Frederick the Great which will hardly not enormously increase your admiration for this great King: His generosity, his humanity, his unselfishness, his toleraion, his modest, his self-discipline, his standard of morality, his delicacy taste, his hard woking, his steel-iron nerve, his indefatigable will, his exceptional equanimity when facing danger, his talent, his prodigious memory, his arts of conversation, his unfailing enegy and strength, his charming wisdom, his extensive appetite for knowledge, and his impeccable private life. Unlike other authors who write history of their subjects, this author blends his own feeling into his writing with his whole sympathy tipping to his hero and unlimited admiration for the King. You can feel the author loves his hero too profoundly and too much not to defend the King, defend his reputation, defend his honor : He spoke for the King for his shortly running away from the battle field due to his generals constant begging for his leave when the battle was heavily clouded; He refuted the rumor that the King had homosexual liaison by giving the powerful evidence that the King was so noble and so proud of himself that he strongly loathed his body be exposed to any person, even when he was void of consciousness because of being wounded in the battle; and so on. The author also fills his book with many amazing and interesting anecdotes of the King[.] .... Overall, with my whole heart, I highly recommend this book which is really one of the best biographies about Frederick the Great, who is one of the greatest, the most extraordinary and influential histoical figures in the world, which is full of valuable and interesting historical sources.

Carlyle is thought of these days, if anyone bothers to think of him at all, as a dyspeptic scholar, a scarifying husband and a Dry-as-Dust historian. This view of him is wrong on all counts.

His "Reminiscences" show Carlyle as he was in his heart of hearts. His childhood was repressive, his early career a disappointment and his marriage to the witty Jane Welsh a mismatch if ever there was one. But nothing could stop this man who felt that he had something to tell and would tell it at no matter what cost to himself and others.

Readers of his wonderful "French Revolution" and stirring "On Heroes and Hero Worship" know that Carlyle did find his public voice and made it heard loud and clear. But the "Reminiscences" let us hear, for almost the first time, his private voice. His memories of his parents, his anguished cry of guilt and longing sent after the, now dead, Jane Welsh Carlyle are deeply moving sometimes painful exposures of the soul of this man who was not used to public displays of affection.

If you miss this book you can never learn to love and respect Carlyle nor even understand him as he deserves to be understood.

An almost unclassifiable work, Sartor Resartus is at once inaccessible and irresitable. Repeated readings always bring new illumination and unearth previously hidden lessons. Carlyle wrote this book to instruct, entertain and, most importantly, to challenge. Its message appears more timely now than ever. Sic vos non vobis!

Sir Thomas Carlyle has woven deep meaning into each phrase and footnote of SARTOR RESARTUS. The Philosophy of Clothes remains a living garmet for the laystall of our day. This manuscript bears wisdom for generations that read the struggles of Diogenes Teufelsdrockh or the indulgences of Philip Zaehdarm. It has been described as everything from a brilliant metaphorical adaptation of German idealism, to Calvinism, to a thinly disguised autobiography of the Professor himself. The Tailor Re-tailored deals with a conception of the world described by the Psalmist "As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." Philosophy that trancends time.

Carlyle's 'Sartor Resartus' is the greatest neglected book in cultural history, endlessly complex, subtle, always self-critical, ironic, mysterious, beautiful and powerful. Not a book to read through from beginning to end, but one to dip into, explore, examine from different angles. As in the book itself, the so-called Editor attempts to piece together the shards of the philosopher-hero Teufelsdrockh's identity, so the reader needs to plunge into, striking into its magical maze of ideas

I really wanted to love this book. I enjoyed reading Goethe's Italian Journey and I've read so many flattering things about Young Werther that I've looked forward for some time to the experience of finally reading it. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab me.

The positives include Goethe's poetic descriptions of nature and the powerful imagery they evoke and the frequently beautiful language with which Werther depicted his obsession with Lotte.

The primary problems I had with the work were the repetitiveness of Werther's self-pitying missives and a certain incredulity I could not shake relative to the foundations of his compulsion. In the final analysis, a persistent feeling that Werther was silly and unjustified in his fixation and self-indulgent in wallowing in his misery dulled the impact of his fate on my senses substantially.

I am hoping for better things from Faust...

What is it about this particular novella which inspired a series of youthful suicides throughout Europe soon after its publication? Why did Napoleon insist on keeping the French translation with him during his campaign in Egypt? How did Goethe succeed in capturing the poignancy of the human heart, while fascinating a jaded but "enlightened" 18th century public? The young German author touched a universal chord with this slender volume, in which he offers tender insight on such diverse Romantic subjects as Love, Religion, Nature and Man's relationships with God and his fellow men. Why do critics consider it a classic of both German and World Literature?

Presented in a quaint literary style, this story consists of confidential diary entries and letters to a trusted friend, Wilhelm, by a senstitive protagonist, with the addition of editorial notes. (The latter results from the inveitable drawbacks of first-person narratives.) The plot unfolds as Werther, a young nobleman who interests himself in the daily activities of the peasantry, is enjoying an extended holiday in a scenic area of Germany. Free to savor the magnificent natural beauty around him, Werther is soon dazzled by the numerous charms of the delightful Charlotte--daughter of a local town dignitary. This paragon of feminie virtue and attraction appears more sensual and maternal than truly sexual.

Alas, the incomparable Lotte is already engaged to absent Albert, due home soon. Is she too naive to understand that in Werther she has acquired an ardent admirer? Is she aware of his easily-inflamed fascination, or the violent depths of his stifled emotions? Is she oblivious or heartless to his passionate despair once her fiance has returned? Just how long can she juggle two lovers, or even control her own dainty heart--which Goethe chastely and tantalizingly hides from us?

Readers will be be swept away on the floodtide of Gothe's untamed emotions, as poor Werther faces the inevitable. Ah, but which act requires or proves the greater bravery: to terminate the heart's torment by the simple act of Suicide, or to accept Life's harshness by continuing a lonely, meaningless existence? Which Hell is it better or nobler to endure: that of rejecting God's gift or that of eternal separation from the Beloved? The strain of a prolonged "menage a trois" can not be permitted to endure--neither from a literary or a moral point of view.

The last entries painfully point the way as Werther's despair cascades into definitive--albeit negative--action. Weep, hope forlornly with this ardent young man, even rage at his fate; then be swept away into the maelstrom of thwarted dreams. Analyze and pity Germany's most famous pre-Romantic hero, as he struggles though this psychological novel, for Goethe plays upon the reader's memory's heartstrings with the skill of Ossian's agonized harper.

There is no doubt about the literary poignancy of this book, or for that matter the masterful mind of its author. But it must be said that the undeniably strong sorrows of young Werther came from an all-consuming love of himself-not from love of another. Or rather he seemed in love with the idea of having someone to consume his idle days and, what he imagined, his large and thoughtful mind. His precipice, from which he condescended to view his every move, thought and encounter, was lofty indeed.

The pastoral atmosphere of the book is what captivated this reader. It's a pity Werther couldn't heed Albert and Lotte's sound advice about retuning his strong emotions...or at least spend more time under Linden trees with his Homer (this would have been my suggestion to him). Perhaps it was the poetry of the equally love-torn Ossian, which came to replace his classic text, that helped spur on his emotional demise. Whatever the case, it was painful to read of his self-indulgent romance with his ideas of love and devotion. He was kidding himself in the grandest and noblest fashion imaginable.

Please don't think me a heartless soul, or someone who couldn't possible understand such an intense love; I just didn't see it that way. However much frustration I felt at Werther's extreme pathos, I remained in awe of the beauty of Goethe's emotive and descriptive writing. Am I contradicting myself here...with talk of emotion? You be the judge.

In Book 1, the narrator presents to British readers German professor Diogenes Teufelsdrockh and his "Philosophy of Clothes". Book 2 describes Teufelsdrockh's childhood, education, first love, heartbreak, sad wanderings, loss and rediscovery of faith. Book 3 expands the philosophy. Only seeing through "clothes" (anything - notably rationalism -masking man's true nature as "spirit") can we understand life : education & art (flamelike, a spirit grows when kindled by another, not composted) the symbiosis of religion & society, science's limitations.Like the ramblings of a half-mad saint (sweetened by storyline only in Book 2) moments of beauty hide within thick stylistic jungle.

Humour (2) Readability (3) Characterisation (4) Structure (4)Beauty (6) Thematic unity (6) Literary style (6) Profundity (7) Significance (7)

Rating 50%

From the correspondance of T.H. Huxley:

"...when I look back, what do I find to have been the agents of my redemption? The hope of immortality or of future reward? I can honestly say that for these fourteen years such a consideration has not entered my head. No, I can tell you exactly what has been at work. Sartor Resartus led me to know that a deep sense of religion was compatible with the entire absence of theology. Secondly, science and her methods gave me a resting-place independent of authority and tradition. Thirdly, love opened up to me a view of the sanctity of human nature, and impressed me with a deep sense of responsibility."

I couldn't put it better. This is one of the books that makes life worth living.

This is a powerful and profound book and even sort of funny (a professor of everything... c'mon!!!)

This is a difficult book. It has small print and is written in the sort of stilted style that one would expect for a book with a Latin name written by a Scot more than a century ago. Carlyle was one of the most brilliant men of his time and in this book you can see hints of Goethe and Novalis and the other German romantic types..... which makes it sort of worthwhile....

But this was a really tough book for me to get through. Normally, I can plow through about anything.... but this took an awful lot of work....

I recommend it, though, with that qualification.... it is one of the "best" books ever written....!