Thomas Carlyle, a Remarkable Scottish Writer and Author of Sartor Resartus

Mairiuna, I finally found the picture of Thomas Carlyle’s statue that we took while crossing the little village of Ecclefechan, in the southern region of Dumfries & Galloway, close to the English border.  🙂

Thomas Carlyle Statue - Ecclefechan - Scotland (Photo © Scotiana 2006)

The artist, Joseph Edgar Boehm, has depicted the philosopher of Chelsea seated in an arm-chair, in deep study.

Head of Thomas Carlyle Statue-Ecclefechan-Scotland (Photo © Scotiana 2006)

More statues of Thomas Carlyle can be found, namely in the Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow as well as in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

Thomas Carlyle Statue by William Kellock Browne Kelvingrove Park(Photo © www.thomascarlyle.eu)

Thomas Carlyle StatueScottish National Portrait Gallery (Photo © SNPG)

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Born in a Calvinist environment, son of a master stonemason, he uses all of his wit to preach against materialism and also against mechanism during the industrial revolution while spreading  his German likeliness of thoughts as personnaly inspired by Goethe and  Schiller. He also admired Coleridge.

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The most characteristic work written by Thomas Carlyle is Sartor Resartus in which he describes  the material world as being a symbolic reflection of the spiritual world.

Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle - Everyman's Library Ed.

His thesis expresses the belief that as you leave this world, only the physical form goes through a change, as opposed to your spirit permanency.

The book did not reach instant approbation of the readers and consequently had limited success upon publication in 1838. Why? As per my readings , it seems that it is because:

“[…] in part because of its wild, grotesque, and rambling mixture of serious and comic styles. This picturesque and knotted prose was to become Carlyle’s hallmark “.

Source: Answers.com/topic/thomas-carlyle

I personally agree with the theme of his book, and cannot wait to read it in it’s entirety to better understand why it was greeted with “universal disapprobation”.

Author: Harry Fern from a photograph by John Pattrick, Century Magazine, 1899

Thomas Carlyle was a remarkable man.  To attend his courses he first walked the distance of 84 miles that separated his house from the University of Edinburgh.

Birthplace of Thomas Carlyle known as the Arch House (Photo © Scotiana 2004)

Another proof of his courage, endurance and energy was how he came back from the misfortune of having his entrusted manuscript for the first volume of The French Revolution burned by one of his friend John Stuart Mills’s close relationship, who mistook the manuscript as scrap paper !! Even though he was offered a £200 compensation, he still had to rewrite the entire book from the beginning.

I go bezerk when I loose two sentences from a document I closed without saving !! Imagine losing an entire book ? …gee wiz 🙁

One thing is certain, even though Thomas Carlyle was the leading social critic of early Victorian England, he never forgot his scottish roots and now rests in Ecclefechan churchyard in Scotland.

Thomas Carlyle Gravestone - Ecclefechan Churchyard - (Photo © Scotiana 2004)

Here rests Thomas Carlyle, who was born at Ecclefechan, 4th December 1795, and died at 24 Cheyne Row Chelsea, London on Saturday 5th February 1881.

Dwight Eisenhower who kept Sartor Resartus with him from 1942 through 1945 while Commander of AEF noted,

President Dwight Eisenhower - Stamp Collector

“It is a humble man who has read this masterpiece and hides it in his heart.”

Talk soon,

Janice