Thomas Carlyle 
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History 

In his 1840 lectures on heroes, Thomas Carlyle, Victorian essayist and social critic, championed the importance of the individual in history. Published the following year and eventually translated into fifteen languages, this imaginative work of history, comparative religion, and literature is the most influential statement of a man who came to be thought of as a secular prophet and the ‘undoubted head of English letters’ (Emerson). His vivid portraits of Muhammad, Dante, Luther, Napoleon—just a few of the individuals Carlyle celebrated for changing the course of world history—made
On Heroes a challenge to the anonymous social forces threatening to control life during the Industrial Revolution.


In eight volumes, The Strouse Edition will provide the texts of Carlyle’s major works edited for the first time to contemporary scholarly standards. For the general reader, its detailed introductions and annotations will offer insight into the author’s thought and a reconstruction of the diverse and often arcane Carlylean sources.

Table of Content

List of Illustrations

Preface

CONTENTS

Chronology of Carlyle’s Life

Introduction

Note on the Text

On Heroes, Hero- Worship, and the Heroic in History

Lecture I. The Hero as Divinity

Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology

Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet

Mahomet: Islam

Lecture III. The Hero as Poet

Dante; Shakspeare

Lecture IV. The Hero as Priest

Luther; Reformation: Knox; Puritanism

Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters

Johnson, Rousseau, Burns

Lecture VI. The Hero as King

Cromwell, Napoleon: Modern Revolutionism

Appendix: 1858 Summary and Index

Notes

Works Cited

Textual Apparatus

Emendations of the Copy-Text

Discussion of Editorial Decisions

Line-End Hyphens in the Copy-Text

Line-End Hyphens in the Present Text

Historical Collation

Index

 

About the author

Michael K. Goldberg is Professor of English, University of British Columbia. He has written widely on the 19th century including Carlyle and Dickens (Georgia, 1972). Joel J. Brattin is Assistant Professor in the Humanities at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Mark Engel is a student of philosophy, a professional editor, and an independent scholar.