The Complete Works of Thomas Carlyle

Not relevant . Hardcover. Good. Thomas Y Crowell & Company, New York, no date but c. 1900; 20 volumes bound in ten with separate pagination to each part with each physical volume running to around 950pp, perhaps approaching 10,000pp in total; 150 x 210mm; uniform publisher's binding of dark red canvas, black title labels titled gilt, edges uncut, top edge gilt; each physical volume has a photogravure frontispiece printed on thick cream wove and protected with a tissue guard identifying the image; other photographic plates in the text; slight uniform fading of the spines; some corners and spine ends a little rubbed, internally clean and firmly bound. ... ... ... ... ... Born in the south west of Scotland in 1795 Carlyle began his studies for the ministry at Edinburgh but, losing his belief, turned instead to literature, history and philosophy, becoming known in time as the Sage of Chelsea. He became enormously influential through his writing which later commentators have denoted proto-postmodern, referring partly to his using aspects of the past to explain problems and other matters of the present, his use of intertextualism and metafiction in his writing. ... ... ... ... ... He was of his time in promoting the "Great Men of History" view and championed the likes of Napoleon, Frederich the Great, Oliver Cromwell. He was critical of democracy and hostile to philosophies such as Bentham's utilitarianism but argued positively in favour of socialism. ... ... ... ... ... Ralph Waldo Emerson met Carlyle and was strongly influenced by his thought and by reading his essays. ... ... ... ... ... Perhaps above all Carlye was deliberately distinctive in his approach to writing style, scorning the detached, distanced manner cultivated by the academic in favour of what he saw as the necessary energy of great writing, the removing of boundaries and the use of metaphor, often wild metaphor, to bring out the truth behind apparent reality. ... ... ... ... ... NOTE that as the volumes weigh just over 10kg there may need to be a small adjustment to the default postage rates shown, the exact amount depending on destination and service.