Thomas Carlyle | Biography

Thomas Carlyle was a significant social thinker in Victorian-era England. The Scottish author wrote in many different forms and styles, including satirical journalism, essay, history and fiction. He concerned himself primarily with the larger themes of order and anarchy, the social condition of Victorian England, his feelings against democracy, and the hero and leader.

Thomas Carlyle was born in the small farming village of Ecclefechan, Scotland, in 1795, to stone-mason James and Margaret Aitken Carlyle. He attended Edinburgh University from 1809 to 1814 but did not complete his degree. Originally studying science and mathematics, he rejected careers in teaching, law, the Church, and translation. Carlyle first earned a living as a tutor and schoolmaster but began his writing career in 1819. At that time, he moved to Edinburgh and began writing articles on science and literature for magazines and encyclopedias. He married Jane Carlyle in 1826. Like her husband, Jane became a member of the intellectual elite and was particularly involved in the question of women's rights.

In 1833 Carlyle published one of his most famous works Sartor Resartus, a semi-autobiographical work about a German professor who struggles with his identity and his relationship to society. In 1834, Carlyle moved to London and began writing The French Revolution (1837), one of his most celebrated historical works. In 1841, he wrote On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History which put forth the idea that a strong and heroic leader was the main thrust behind social progress. In Chartism (1839), and Past and Present (1843), Carlyle wrote on anarchy, implying that anarchy will overtake society if the aristocracy does not fulfill its responsibility to the government and if society does not consider the social and ethical concerns of the time such as poverty, pollution, and population explosion. Carlyle's six volume work on Frederick the Great, written in the 1850's, showed his approval for a leader he considered heroic, though Frederick the Great clearly violated the rules of justice to promote his own view of society. When Carlyle's wife died in 1866, he effectively stopped writing for the public, but he did write his autobiographical work Reminiscences, which was published posthumously, in 1887.

Carlyle's ideas were controversial and his beliefs were a study in contradictions. He puzzled and intrigued his reading public throughout his writing career. His distinctive writing style, described as "Carlylese," is notoriously difficult to follow. Carlyle's reputation as a man of letters declined during the early to mid 1900s but has since been resurrected. His most famous works are not only significant social commentaries but are also stylistically revolutionary, rendering him one of the most important and artistic social critics of his time.