Synopsis
At the opening of volume 33, which covers letters written between August 1857 and June 1858, Jane Welsh Carlyle is in Scotland visiting relatives and Thomas Carlyle is at home in Chelsea, working daily under an awning in the backyard and struggling with the proofs of the first two volumes of History of Frederick the Great as well as with research for future volumes. Thomas was disturbed both by the Panic of 1857 and by news of the Indian Mutiny and the behavior of British troops in that part of the empire. He was fiercely critical of the politicians and civil servants who trumpeted the merits of "progress," "democracy," and "civilization" while governing India with often brutal and repressive policies. Meanwhile, Jane was reading an early work by a new writer named George Eliot, to whom she wrote a fan letter that began "Dear Sir," unaware that Eliot was in fact Mary Ann Evans, whom they had entertained in their home. In May, Thomas observed a gang of navvies, or day laborers, with picks and shovels, digging a foundation and uncovering ancient, gigantic bones. At the suggestion of paleontologist Richard Owen, the bones of the extinct Pliocene mammals-including a whale-were sold to a dealer to be ground into powder. During the same month, the separation of Charles Dickens and his wife, the former Catherine Hogarth, was the subject of many a conversation.
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Review
"[N]otable not only for its editorial thoroughness but also for offering hitherto unpublished material."
--Susan Morgan, "Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900"
"[A] scrupulously edited, monumental edition. . . . Neurotic, complaining, self-absorbed and repetitive both Carlyles may be in their letters, but they are a pair entirely "sui generis," both in their way endowed with genius, and no better observers existed of Victorian London life, from that of the richest aristocrats to that of the poorest foreign refugees."
--Rosemary Ashton, "Times Literary Supplement"
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.
Campbell is Director-General of The Institute of Export.
Sorensen is Associate Professor of English at St. Joseph's University.
Fielding is George Saintsbury Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
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The Collected Letters of Thomas & Jane Welsh Carlyle Volume 33 August 1857 - June 1858 Duke Edinburgh Edition.
Seller: Harry Alter, Sylva, NC, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
hardcover, Condition: Very Good, Duke University Press, 2005, 1st., 8vo., cloth, (xxxvii,308)pp., a couple of ink notes, ow VG $. Seller Inventory # 86574