View source for Thomas Carlyle

{{Short description|Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher (1795–1881)}}
{{about||the Scottish lawyer|Thomas Carlyle (lawyer)}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name          = Thomas Carlyle
| image         = Thomas Carlyle lm.jpg
| caption       = Portrait {{circa|1865}}
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1795|12|04|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Ecclefechan]], Dumfriesshire, Scotland
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1881|02|05|1795|12|04|df=yes}}
| death_place   = London, England
| alma_mater    = [[University of Edinburgh]]
| spouse        = {{Marriage|[[Jane Welsh Carlyle]]|1826|1866|end=died}}
| notable_ideas = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{ubl|item_style={{longitem}}
| [[Carlyleanism]]
| [[Natural Supernaturalism]]
| [[Meaning of life]]
| [[Speech is silver, silence is golden]]
| [[Great Man theory]]
| [[Condition-of-England question]]
| [[Captain of industry]]
| [[The dismal science]]
| [[Carlylese]]
| [[Sage writing]]
| [[Carlyle circle]]}}
}}
| signature     = Signature of Thomas Carlyle.svg
}}{{Conservatism UK|Intellectuals}}
'''Thomas Carlyle''' (4 December 1795{{spaced ndash}}5 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the "[[Sage writing|sage]] of [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the [[Victorian era]].

Carlyle was born in [[Ecclefechan]], a village in [[Dumfriesshire]], Scotland. He attended the [[University of Edinburgh]], where he excelled in mathematics and invented the [[Carlyle circle]]. After finishing the arts course he prepared to become a minister in the [[Burgher (Church history)|Burgher]] Church while working as a schoolmaster. He quit these and several other endeavours before settling on literature, writing for the ''[[Edinburgh Encyclopædia]]'' and working as a translator. He initially gained prominence in English-language [[Literary circle|literary circles]] for his extensive writing on [[German Romanticism|German Romantic]] literature and philosophy. These themes were explored in his first major work, a semi-autobiographical [[philosophical novel]] entitled ''[[Sartor Resartus]]'' (1833–34).

Carlyle eventually relocated to London, where he published ''[[The French Revolution: A History]]'' (1837). Its popular success made him a celebrity, prompting the collection and reissue of his earlier essays under the title of ''[[Miscellanies (Carlyle)|Miscellanies]]''. His subsequent works were highly regarded throughout Europe and North America, including ''[[On Heroes]]'' (1841), [[Past and Present (book)|''Past and Present'']] (1843), ''[[Cromwell's Letters]]'' (1845), ''[[Latter-Day Pamphlets]]'' (1850), and ''[[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great|Frederick the Great]]'' (1858–65). He founded the [[London Library]], helped to establish the National Portrait Galleries [[National Portrait Gallery, London|in London]] and [[Scottish National Portrait Gallery|in Edinburgh]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Great Hall in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/great-hall-portrait-gallery |access-date=7 August 2022 |website=National Galleries of Scotland |language=en |quote=The procession starts with the author and historian Thomas Carlyle, who played a significant role in the establishment of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.}}</ref> became [[Rector of the University of Edinburgh|Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh]] in 1865 and received the ''[[Pour le Mérite]]'' in 1874, amongst other honours.

Carlyle occupied a central position in Victorian culture, being considered the "undoubted head of [[English literature|English letters]]"<ref>{{Cite news |last=Emerson |first=Ralph Waldo |author-link=Ralph Waldo Emerson |date=1881 |title=The Literary Work of Thomas Carlyle |pages=92 |work=[[Scribner's Monthly]] |issue=22 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106009632289?urlappend=%3Bseq=106%3Bownerid=9007199271934042-114 |quote=Mr. Carlyle ... has yet for many years been accepted by competent critics of all shades of opinion as the undoubted head of English letters. |hdl=2027/uc1.32106009632289?urlappend=%3Bseq=106}}</ref>{{Sfn|Stephen|1887|p=124|ps=|loc="Carlyle during these years had become the acknowledged head of English literature."}} and a "secular prophet". Posthumously, a series of publications by his friend [[James Anthony Froude]] damaged Carlyle's reputation, provoking controversy about his personal life and his marriage to [[Jane Welsh Carlyle]] in particular. His reputation further declined in the aftermaths of the [[First World War]] and the [[Second World War]], when his philosophy was seen as a precursor of both [[Prussianism]] and [[fascism]]. Growing scholarship in the field of Carlyle studies since the 1950s has improved his standing, and although little-read today, he is yet recognised as "one of the enduring monuments of [English] literature".{{Sfn|Tennyson|1973|p=35<!--ref in lead to support direct quotation-->}}

==Biography==
=== Early life ===
[[File:Arched House, Ecclefechan (Thomas Carlyle's birthplace).jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace]]]]
[[File:Silhouettes of Thomas Carlyle's father and mother made by Jane Welsh Carlyle with captions in Carlyle's hand 2.jpg|thumb|Silhouettes of Carlyle's father and mother with captions in Carlyle's hand|left]]
Thomas Carlyle was born on 4 December 1795 to James and Margaret Aitken Carlyle in the village of Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire in southwest Scotland. His parents were members of the [[Burgher (Church history)|Burgher]] secession [[Presbyterian]] church.<ref>"Among these humble, stern, earnest religionists of the Burgher phase of Dissent Thomas Carlyle was born." – Sloan, John MacGavin (1904). [https://archive.org/stream/carlylecountrywi00sloauoft#page/n9/mode/2up ''The Carlyle Country, with a Study of Carlyle's Life.''] London: Chapman & Hall, p. 40.</ref> James Carlyle was a stonemason, later a farmer, who built the [[Thomas Carlyle's Birthplace|Arched House]] wherein his son was born. His [[maxim (philosophy)|maxim]] was that "man was created to work, not to speculate, or feel, or dream."{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=5}} [[Nicholas Carlisle]], an English antiquary, traced his ancestry back to Margaret Bruce, sister of [[Robert the Bruce]].{{sfn|Marrs|1968|p=1}}

As a result of his upbringing, James Carlyle became deeply religious in his youth, reading many books of sermons and doctrinal arguments throughout his life. In 1791 he married his first wife, distant cousin Janet, who gave birth to John Carlyle and then died. He married Margaret Aitken in 1795, a poor farmer's daughter then working as a servant. They had nine children, of whom Thomas was the eldest. Margaret was pious and devout and hoped that Thomas would become a minister. She was close to her eldest son, being a "smoking companion, counsellor and confidante" in Carlyle's early days. She suffered a manic episode when Carlyle was a teenager, in which she became "elated, disinhibited, over-talkative and violent."<ref>Ingram, I. M. Margaret Carlyle: ''Her Illness of 1817 and its Consequences''. Carlyle Society Papers: Edinburgh, 2004.</ref> She suffered another breakdown in 1817, which required her to be removed from her home and restrained.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=76–77}} Carlyle always spoke highly of his parents, and his character was deeply influenced by both of them.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=27}}

Carlyle's early education came from his mother, who taught him reading (despite being barely literate), and his father, who taught him arithmetic.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=66–67}} He first attended "Tom Donaldson's School" in Ecclefechan followed by [[Hoddom|Hoddam]] School ({{Circa|1802–1806|}}), which "then stood at the [[Kirk (word)|Kirk]]", located at the "Cross-roads" midway between Ecclefechan and [[Hoddom Castle|Hoddam Castle]].{{Sfn|''LL''||loc=2:369, n. 2}} By age 7 Carlyle showed enough proficiency in English that he was advised to "go into Latin", which he did with enthusiasm; however, the schoolmaster at Hoddam did not know Latin, so he was handed over to a minister who did, with whom he made a "rapid & sure way".{{Sfn|''TR''||pp=29–30}} He then went to [[Annan Academy]] ({{Circa|1806–1809}}), where he studied rudimentary Greek, read Latin and French fluently, and learned arithmetic "thoroughly well".{{Sfn|''TR''||p=31}} Carlyle was severely bullied by his fellow students at Annan, until he "revolted against them, and gave stroke for stroke"; he remembered the first two years there as among the most miserable of his life.{{Sfn|''TR''||p=32}}

=== Edinburgh, the ministry and teaching (1809–1818) ===
[[File:Thomas Carlyle plaque, Buccleuch Place - geograph.org.uk - 1419955.jpg|thumb|Plaque at 22A [[Buccleuch (parish), Edinburgh|Buccleuch]] Place, Edinburgh<ref>{{Cite news |title=Thomas Carlyle |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/people/plaques/carlyle |access-date=19 July 2022 |website=The University of Edinburgh |date=13 May 2015 |language=en}}</ref>|left|185x185px]]
In November 1809 at nearly fourteen years of age, Carlyle walked one hundred miles from his home in order to attend the [[University of Edinburgh]] ({{Circa|1809–1814}}), where he studied mathematics with [[John Leslie (physicist)|John Leslie]], science with [[John Playfair]] and [[moral philosophy]] with [[Thomas Brown (philosopher)|Thomas Brown]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=78}} He gravitated to mathematics and geometry and displayed great talent in those subjects, being credited with the invention of the [[Carlyle circle]]. In the University library he read many important works of eighteenth-century and contemporary history, philosophy and ''[[belles-lettres]]''.{{Sfn|Neff|1932|p=28}} He began expressing religious scepticism around this time, asking his mother to her horror, "Did God Almighty come down and make wheelbarrows in a shop?"{{Sfn|Allingham||p=253}} In 1813 he completed his arts curriculum and enrolled in a theology course at [[New College, Edinburgh|Divinity Hall, Edinburgh]], the following academic year. This was to be the preliminary of a ministerial career.{{Sfn|Wilson||loc=1:87}}

Carlyle began teaching at Annan Academy in June 1814.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:14, 16}} In December 1814 and December 1815, he gave his first trial sermons, both of which are lost.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=189}} By the summer of 1815 he had taken an interest in [[astronomy]]{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:103}} and would study the astronomical theories of [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] for several years.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:127–128}} In November 1816 he began teaching at [[Kirkcaldy]], having left Annan. There, he made friends with [[Edward Irving]], whose ex-pupil Margaret Gordon became Carlyle's "first love". In May 1817,{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:97}} Carlyle abstained from enrolment in the theology course, news which his parents received with "[[magnanimity]]".{{Sfn|''TR''||p=35}} In the autumn of that year, he read ''[[De l'Allemagne]]'' (1813) by [[Germaine de Staël]], which prompted him to seek a German teacher, with whom he learned the pronunciation.{{Sfn|''TR''||p=13}} In Irving's library he read the works of [[David Hume]] and [[Edward Gibbon]]'s [[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|''The History of the'' ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'']] (1776–1789); he would later recall that <blockquote>

I read Gibbon, and then first clearly saw that [[Christianity]] was not true. Then came the most trying time of my life. I should either have gone mad or made an end of myself had I not fallen in with some very superior minds.{{Sfn|Allingham||p=232}} </blockquote>

=== Mineralogy, law and first publications (1818–1821) ===

[[File:Jane Baillie Welsh, Mrs Thomas Carlyle, 1801 - 1866. Wife of the historian Thomas Carlyle.jpg|thumb|upright|Jane Baillie Welsh by [[Kenneth Macleay (painter)|Kenneth Macleay]], 1826, shortly before marriage]]

In the summer of 1818, following an expedition with Irving through the moors of [[Peebles]] and [[Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway|Moffat]], Carlyle made his first attempt at publishing, forwarding an article describing what he saw to the editor of an Edinburgh magazine, which was not published and is now lost.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=319}} In October, Carlyle resigned from his position at Kirkcaldy, and left for Edinburgh in November.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:143}} Shortly before his departure, he began to suffer from [[dyspepsia]], which remained with him throughout his life.{{Sfn|''TR''||p=50}} He enrolled in a [[mineralogy]] class from November 1818 to April 1819, attending lectures by [[Robert Jameson]],{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:149}} and in January 1819 began to study German, desiring to read the mineralogical works of [[Abraham Gottlob Werner]].{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=5:28}} In February and March, he translated a piece by [[Jöns Jacob Berzelius]],{{Sfn|Dyer|1928|p=30}} and by September he was "reading [[Goethe]]".{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:196}} In November he enrolled in "the class of [[Scots law]]", studying under the advocate [[David Hume (advocate)|David Hume]].{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:208}} In December 1819 and January 1820 Carlyle made his second attempt at publishing, writing a review-article on [[Marc-Auguste Pictet]]'s review of [[Jean-Alfred Gautier]]'s ''Essai historique sur le problème des trois corps'' (1817), which went unpublished and is lost.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||pp=318–319}} The law classes ended in March 1820 and he did not pursue the subject any further.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:236}}

In the same month he wrote several articles for [[David Brewster]]'s ''[[Edinburgh Encyclopædia]]'' (1808–1830), which appeared in October. These were his first published writings.{{Sfn|Shepherd Bibliography||p=1}} In May and June, Carlyle wrote a review-article on the work of [[Christopher Hansteen]], translated a book by [[Friedrich Mohs]], and read [[Goethe's Faust|Goethe's ''Faust'']].{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:251, 253, 254}} By the autumn Carlyle had also learned Italian and was reading [[Vittorio Alfieri]], [[Dante Alighieri]] and [[Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi]],{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:272–273}} although German literature was still his foremost interest, having "revealed" to him a "new Heaven and new Earth".{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:286}} In March 1821 he finished two more articles for Brewster's encyclopaedia, and in April he completed a review of [[Joanna Baillie]]'s ''Metrical Legends'' (1821).{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:352}}

In May Carlyle was introduced to [[Jane Welsh Carlyle|Jane Baillie Welsh]] by Irving in Haddington.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=79}} The two began a correspondence, and Carlyle sent books to her, encouraging her intellectual pursuits; she called him "my German Master".{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:368}}

=== "Conversion": Leith Walk and Hoddam Hill (1821–1826) ===
During this time, Carlyle struggled with what he described as "the dismallest [[Lernaean Hydra|Lernean Hydra]] of problems, spiritual, temporal, eternal".{{Sfn|''TR''||pp=50–51}} Spiritual doubt, lack of success in his endeavours, and dyspepsia were all damaging his physical and mental health, for which he found relief only in "sea-bathing". In early July 1821,{{Sfn|Vijn|2017|p=28}} "during those 3 weeks of total sleeplessness, in which almost" his "one solace was that of a daily bathe on the sands between [<nowiki/>[[Leith]]] and [[Portobello, Edinburgh|Portobello]]", an "incident" occurred in [[Leith Walk]] as he "went ''down''" into the water.{{Sfn|''TR''||p=49}} This was the beginning of Carlyle's "Conversion", the process by which he "authentically took the Devil by the nose"{{Sfn|Froude||loc=1:101}} and flung "''him'' behind me".{{Sfn|''TR''||p=51}} It gave him courage in his battle against the "Hydra"; to his brother John, he wrote, "What is there to fear, indeed?"{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:371–372}}
[[File:Repentance Tower.jpg|thumb|[[Repentance Tower]] near the farm in Hoddam Hill, which Carlyle called "a fit memorial for reflecting sinners."{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=TC to Janie Baillie Welsh; 23 March 1825}}|left]]
Carlyle wrote several articles in July, August and September, and in November began a translation of [[Adrien-Marie Legendre|Adrien Marie Legendre]]'s ''Elements of Geometry''. In January 1822, Carlyle wrote "Goethe's Faust" for the ''[[New Edinburgh Review]]'', and shortly afterwards began a tutorship for the distinguished Buller family, tutoring [[Charles Buller]] and his brother [[Arthur William Buller]] until July; he would work for the family until July 1824. Carlyle completed the Legendre translation in July 1822, having prefixed his own essay "On [[Proportionality (mathematics)|Proportion]]", which [[Augustus De Morgan]] later called "as good a substitute for the fifth [[Euclid's Elements|Book of Euclid]] as could have been given in that space".{{Sfn|Fielding|Tarr|1976|p=62|loc=}}

Carlyle's translation of Goethe's ''[[Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship]]'' (1824) and ''[[Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years|Travels]]'' (1825) and his biography of [[Friedrich Schiller]] (1825) brought him a decent income, which had before then eluded him, and he garnered a modest reputation. He began corresponding with Goethe and made his first trip to London in 1824, meeting with prominent writers such as [[Thomas Campbell (poet)|Thomas Campbell]], [[Charles Lamb]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], and gaining friendships with Anna Montagu, [[Bryan Procter|Bryan Waller Proctor]], and [[Henry Crabb Robinson]]. He also travelled to Paris in October–November with [[Sir Edward Strachey, 3rd Baronet|Edward Strachey]] and [[Kitty Kirkpatrick]], where he attended [[Georges Cuvier]]'s introductory lecture on [[comparative anatomy]], gathered information on the study of [[medicine]], introduced himself to Legendre, was introduced by Legendre to [[Charles Dupin]], observed Laplace and several other notables while declining offers of introduction by Dupin, and heard [[François Magendie]] read a paper on the "[[Trigeminal nerve|fifth pair of nerves]]".{{Sfn|''Letters''||p=3:187–188}}

In May 1825, Carlyle moved into a cottage farmhouse in Hoddam Hill near Ecclefechan, which his father had leased for him. Carlyle lived with his brother Alexander, who, "with a cheap little man-servant", worked on the farm, his mother with her one maid-servant, and his two youngest sisters, Jean and Jenny.{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=JBW to Thomas Carlyle; 2 September 1825}} He had constant contact with the rest of his family, most of whom lived close by at Mainhill, a farm owned by his father.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=303}} Jane made a successful visit in September 1825. Whilst there, Carlyle wrote ''German Romance'' (1827), a translation of German novellas by [[Johann Karl August Musäus]], [[Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué]], [[Ludwig Tieck]], [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]] and [[Jean Paul]]. In Hoddam Hill Carlyle found respite from the "intolerable fret, noise and confusion" that he had experienced in Edinburgh, and observed what he described as "the finest and vastest prospect all round it I ever saw from any house", with "all [[Cumberland]] as in amphitheatre unmatchable".{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=JBW to Thomas Carlyle; 2 September 1825}} Here, he completed his "Conversion" which began with the Leith Walk incident. He achieved "a grand and ''ever''-joyful victory", in the "final chaining down, and trampling home, 'for good,' home into their caves forever, of all" his "''Spiritual Dragons''".{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=JBW to Mrs. George Welsh; 1 October 1826}} By May 1826, problems with the landlord and the agreement forced the family's relocation to [[Scotsbrig]], a farm near Ecclefechan. Later in life, he remembered the year at Hoddam Hill as "perhaps the most triumphantly important of my life."{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=223–224}}

=== Marriage, Comely Bank and Craigenputtock (1826–1834) ===

[[File:Thomas Carlyle's house, Comely Bank - geograph.org.uk - 1462840.jpg|thumb|[[21 Comely Bank]]]]

In October 1826 Carlyle and Jane Welsh were married at the Welsh family farm in [[Templand]]. Shortly after their marriage, the Carlyles moved into [[Thomas Carlyle's house, Comely Bank|a modest home]] on [[Comely Bank]] in Edinburgh, which had been leased for them by Jane's mother. They lived there from October 1826 to May 1828. In that time, Carlyle published ''German Romance'', began ''Wotton Reinfred'', an autobiographical novel which he left unfinished, and published his first article for the ''[[Edinburgh Review#Edinburgh Review, 1802–1929|Edinburgh Review]]'', "Jean Paul Friedrich Richter" (1827). "Richter" was the first of many essays extolling the virtues of German authors, who were then little-known to English readers; "State of German Literature" was published in October.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=442}} In Edinburgh, Carlyle made contact with several distinguished literary figures, including the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' editor [[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey|Francis Jeffrey]], [[John Wilson (Scottish writer)|John Wilson]] of ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', the essayist [[Thomas De Quincey]] and the philosopher [[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet|William Hamilton]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=79}} In 1827 Carlyle attempted to land the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the [[University of St Andrews]] without success, despite support from an array of prominent intellectuals, including Goethe.<ref>Nichol, John (1892). [https://archive.org/stream/thomascarlyle00nichuoft#page/n5/mode/2up ''Thomas Carlyle.''] London: Macmillan & Co., p. 49.</ref> He also made an unsuccessful attempt for a professorship at the [[University College London|University of London]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=79}}

[[File:Craigenputtock.jpg|left|thumb|[[Craigenputtock]]]]

In May 1828 the Carlyles moved to [[Craigenputtock]], the main house of Jane's modest agricultural estate in Dumfriesshire, which they occupied until May 1834.<ref name="Du">{{cite web |title=Thomas Carlyle and Dumfries & Galloway |url=https://www.dumfries-and-galloway.co.uk/people/carlyle.htm |access-date=9 July 2020 |website=D&G online}}</ref> He wrote a number of essays there which earned him money and augmented his reputation, including "Life and Writings of [[Zacharias Werner|Werner]]", "Goethe's Helena", "Goethe", "Robert Burns|Burns", "The Life of [[Christian Gottlob Heyne|Heyne]]" (each 1828), "German Playwrights", "Voltaire", "Novalis" (each 1829), "Jean Paul Friedrich Richter Again" (1830), "Cruthers and Jonson; or The Outskirts of Life: A True Story", "Luther's Psalm", and "Schiller" (each 1831). He began but did not complete a history of German literature, from which he drew material for essays "The Nibelungen Lied", "Early German Literature" and parts of "Historic Survey of German Poetry" (each 1831). He published early thoughts on the philosophy of history in "Thoughts on History" (1830) and wrote his first pieces of social criticism, "Signs of the Times" (1829) and "Characteristics" (1831).<ref name="daiches89">D. Daiches (ed.), ''Companion to Literature 1'' (London, 1965), p. 89.</ref> "Signs" garnered the interest of [[Gustave d'Eichthal]], a member of the [[Saint-Simonianism|Saint-Simonians]], who sent Carlyle Saint-Simonian literature, including [[Henri de Saint-Simon]]'s ''Nouveau Christianisme'' (1825), for which Carlyle translated and wrote an introduction.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=406–407}}

[[File:Carlyle_Maclise_Original.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Carlyle by [[Daniel Maclise]] for the ''Fraser's'' "Gallery of Literary Characters", June 1833]]

Most notably, he wrote ''[[Sartor Resartus]]''. Finishing the manuscript in late July 1831, Carlyle began his search for a publisher, leaving for London in early August.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=414}} He and his wife lived there for the winter at 4 (now 33) Ampton Street, [[Kings Cross, London|Kings Cross]], in a house built by [[Thomas Cubitt]].{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=83}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Numbers 21–39 and Attached Railings, Non Civil Parish – 1246998 {{!}} Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1246998 |access-date=6 August 2022 |website=historicengland.org.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Carlyle {{!}} Essayist & Historian {{!}} Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/thomas-carlyle/ |access-date=6 August 2022 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> The death of Carlyle's father in January 1832 and his inability to attend the funeral moved him to write the first of what would become the [[Reminiscences (Carlyle)|''Reminiscences'']], published posthumously in 1881.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=67}} Carlyle had not found a publisher by the time he returned to Craigenputtock in March but he had initiated important friendships with [[Leigh Hunt]] and [[John Stuart Mill]]. That year, Carlyle wrote the essays "Goethe's Portrait", "Death of Goethe", "Goethe's Works", "Biography", "Boswell's Life of Johnson", and "Corn-Law Rhymes". Three months after their return from a January to May 1833 stay in Edinburgh, the Carlyles were visited at Craigenputtock by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson (and other like-minded Americans) had been deeply affected by Carlyle's essays and determined to meet him during the northern terminus of a literary pilgrimage; it was to be the start of a lifelong friendship and [[Carlyle–Emerson correspondence|a famous correspondence]]. 1833 saw the publication of the essays "Diderot" and "Count Cagliostro"; in the latter, Carlyle introduced the idea of "[[Captains of Industry]]".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=61}}

=== Chelsea (1834–1845) ===
In June 1834 the Carlyles moved into [[5 Cheyne Row]], [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], which became their home for the remainder of their respective lives. Residence in London wrought a large expansion of Carlyle's social circle. He became acquainted with scores of leading writers, novelists, artists, radicals, men of science, Church of England clergymen, and political figures. Two of his most important friendships were with [[Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton|Lord]] and [[Lady Harriet Mary Montagu|Lady Ashburton]]; though Carlyle's warm affection for the latter would eventually strain his marriage, the Ashburtons helped to broaden his social horizons, giving him access to circles of intelligence, political influence, and power.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=81}}

[[File:Thomas Carlyle House - 24 Cheyne Row Chelsea London SW3 5HL.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Carlyle's House]]]]

Carlyle eventually decided to publish ''Sartor'' serially in ''[[Fraser's Magazine]]'', with the instalments appearing between November 1833 and August 1834. Despite early recognition from Emerson, Mill and others, it was generally received poorly, if noticed at all. In 1834, Carlyle applied unsuccessfully for the astronomy professorship at the [[Edinburgh observatory]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=418}} That autumn, he arranged for the publication of a history of the [[French Revolution]] and set about researching and writing it shortly thereafter. Having completed the first volume after five months of writing, he lent the manuscript to Mill, who had been supplying him with materials for his research. One evening in March 1835, Mill arrived at Carlyle's door appearing "unresponsive, pale, the very picture of despair". He had come to tell Carlyle that the manuscript was destroyed. It had been "left out", and Mill's housemaid took it for wastepaper, leaving only "some four tattered leaves". Carlyle was sympathetic: "I can be angry with no one; for they that were concerned in it have a far deeper sorrow than mine: it is purely the hand of [[Divine providence|Providence]]". The next day, Mill offered Carlyle {{Inflation|UK-GDP|200|1835|fmt=eq|orig=yes|cursign=£|r=-3}},{{Inflation/fn|UK-GDP}} of which he would only accept £100. He began the volume anew shortly afterwards. Despite an initial struggle, he was not deterred, feeling like "a runner that tho' ''tripped'' down, will not lie there, but rise and run again."{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=TC to John A. Carlyle; 23 March 1835}}{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=TC to James Fraser; 7 March 1835}} By September, the volume was rewritten. That year, he wrote a eulogy for his friend, "Death of Edward Irving".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=245}}

In April 1836, with the intercession of Emerson, ''Sartor Resartus'' was first published in book form in Boston, soon selling out its initial run of five hundred copies.{{Sfn|Tarr|1989|p=39}}{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=474}} Carlyle's three-volume history of the French Revolution was completed in January 1837 and sent to the press.{{Sfn|Tarr|1989|p=55}} Contemporaneously, the essay "Memoirs of [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]]" was published,{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=331}} as was "[[Affair of the Diamond Necklace|The Diamond Necklace]]" in January and February,{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=121}} and "Parliamentary History of the French Revolution" in April.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=366}} In need of further financial security, Carlyle began a series of lectures on German literature in May, delivered extemporaneously in [[Almack's|Willis' Rooms]]. ''[[The Spectator]]'' reported that the first lecture was given "to a very crowded and yet a select audience of both sexes." Carlyle recalled being "wasted and fretted to a thread, my tongue ... dry as charcoal: the people were there, I was obliged to stumble in, and start. ''Ach Gott!''"{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=9:215}} Despite his inexperience as a lecturer and deficiency "in the mere mechanism of oratory", reviews were positive and the series proved profitable for him.{{Sfn|Shepherd|1881|loc=1:170}}

[[File:Crayon portrait of Thomas Carlyle by Samuel Laurence, circa 1838.png|thumb|upright|Crayon portrait of Thomas Carlyle by [[Samuel Laurence]], 1838]]

During Carlyle's lecture series, ''[[The French Revolution: A History]]'' was officially published. It marked his career breakthrough. At the end of the year, Carlyle reported to [[Karl August Varnhagen von Ense]] that his earlier efforts to popularise German literature were beginning to produce results, and expressed his satisfaction: "''Deutschland'' will reclaim her great Colony; we shall become more ''Deutsch'', that is to say more ''English'', at same time."{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=9:382–385}} ''The French Revolution'' fostered the republication of ''Sartor Resartus'' in London in 1838 as well as a collection of his earlier writings in the form of the ''[[Critical and Miscellaneous Essays]]'', facilitated in Boston with the aid of Emerson. Carlyle presented his second lecture series in April and June 1838 on the history of literature at the Marylebone Institution in [[Portman Square]]. ''[[The Examiner (1808–1886)|The Examiner]]'' reported that at the end of the second lecture, "Mr. Carlyle was heartily greeted with applause."{{Sfn|Shepherd|1881|loc=1:179}} Carlyle felt that they "went on better and better, and grew at last, or threatened to grow, quite a flaming affair."{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=10:93}} He published two essays in 1838, "Sir Walter Scott", being a review of [[John Gibson Lockhart]]'s biography, and "Varnhagen von Ense's Memoirs". In April 1839, Carlyle published "Petition on the [[Copyright Act 1842|Copyright Bill]]".{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=29:205}} A third series of lectures was given in May on the revolutions of modern Europe, which the ''Examiner'' reviewed positively, noting after the third lecture that "Mr. Carlyle's audiences appear to increase in number every time."{{Sfn|Shepherd|1881|loc=1:206}} Carlyle wrote to his mother that the lectures were met "with very kind acceptance from people more distinguished than ever; yet still with a feeling that I was far from the ''right'' lecturing point yet."{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=11:102}} In July, he published "On the Sinking of the [[French ship Vengeur du Peuple|Vengeur]]"{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=478}} and in December he published ''Chartism'', a pamphlet in which he addressed the [[Chartism|movement of the same name]] and raised the [[Condition-of-England question]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=89–90}}

[[File:The Proposed London Library.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Report in [[The Examiner (1808–1886)|''The Examiner'']] of "the speech that gave birth to [[The London Library]]",<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 June 2015 |title=175 years ago: Carlyle's speech that gave birth to The London Library |url=https://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/about-us/latest-news/1458-175-years-ago-carlyle-s-speech-that-gave-birth-to-the-london-library-2 |access-date=24 July 2022 |website=www.londonlibrary.co.uk}}</ref> given by Thomas Carlyle on 24 June 1840]]

In May 1840 Carlyle gave his fourth and final set of lectures, which were published in 1841 as ''[[On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History]].'' Carlyle wrote to his brother John afterwards, "The Lecturing business went of [''sic''] with sufficient ''éclat;'' the Course was generally judged, and I rather join therein myself, to be the bad ''best'' I have yet given."{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=12:152}} In the 1840 edition of the ''Essays'', Carlyle published "Fractions", a collection of poems written from 1823 to 1833.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tennyson |first=G. B. |date=1963 |title=Carlyle's Poetry to 1840: A Checklist and Discussion, a New Attribution, and Six Unpublished Poems |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40001193 |journal=Victorian Poetry |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=161–181 |jstor=40001193 |issn=0042-5206}}</ref> Later that year, he declined a proposal for a professorship of history at Edinburgh.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle= Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881) | volume= 09 |last= Stephen  |first= Leslie |author-link= Leslie Stephen |pages = 111–127 |short=1}}</ref> Carlyle was the principal founder of the [[London Library]] in 1841.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/londonlibrary0000unse/page/9 |title=The London Library |publisher=Boydell Press/Adam Books |year=1978 |isbn=0851150985 |editor-last=Grindea |editor-first=Miron |editor-link=Miron Grindea |place=Ipswich |pages=[https://archive.org/details/londonlibrary0000unse/page/9 9–13] |url-access=registration}}</ref> He had become frustrated by the facilities available at the [[British Library|British Museum Library]], where he was often unable to find a seat (obliging him to perch on ladders), where he complained that the enforced close confinement with his fellow readers gave him a "museum headache", where the books were unavailable for loan, and where he found the library's collections of pamphlets and other material relating to the French Revolution and English Civil Wars inadequately catalogued. In particular, he developed an antipathy to the Keeper of Printed Books, [[Anthony Panizzi]] (despite the fact that Panizzi had allowed him many privileges not granted to other readers), and criticised him in a footnote to an article published in the ''[[Westminster Review]]'' as the "respectable Sub-Librarian".<ref>Wells (1991), pp. 26–31.</ref> Carlyle's eventual solution, with the support of a number of influential friends, was to call for the establishment of a private [[subscription library]] from which books could be borrowed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=John |title=Rude Words: a discursive history of the London Library |publisher=Macmillan |year=1991 |isbn=978-0333475195 |place=London |pages=12–56 |author-link=John Wells (satirist)}}</ref>

Carlyle had chosen [[Oliver Cromwell]] as the subject for a book in 1840 and struggled to find what form it would take. In the interim he wrote ''[[Past and Present (book)|Past and Present]]'' (1843) and the articles "[[Robert Baillie|Baillie]] the [[Covenanters|Covenanter]]" (1841), "Dr. Francia" (1843), and "An Election to the [[Long Parliament]]" (1844). Carlyle declined an offer for professorship from St. Andrews in 1844. The first edition of ''[[Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches]]: with Elucidations'' was published in 1845; it was a popular success and did much to revise Cromwell's standing in Britain.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=81}}<!-- Financially secure, Carlyle wrote little in the years that immediately followed ''Cromwell''.{{sfn|Stephen|1911|p=352}}ref doesn't point to any citation-->

=== Journeys to Ireland and Germany (1846–1865) ===

[[File:Thomas Carlyle Reading.jpg|thumb|upright|Thomas Carlyle by Robert Scott Tait, 25 May 1855]]

Carlyle visited Ireland in 1846 with [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]] as a companion and guide, and wrote a series of brief articles on the [[Irish question]] in 1848. These were "Ireland and the British Chief Governor", "Irish Regiments (of the New Æra)", and "The Repeal of the Union", each of which offered solutions to Ireland's problems and argued to preserve England's connection with Ireland.<ref>Seigel, Jules. "Carlyle and Peel: The Prophet’s Search for a Heroic Politician and an Unpublished Fragment". ''Victorian Studies'', vol. 26, no. 2, 1983, pp. 181–195, {{JSTOR|3827005}}. Accessed 13 April 2022.</ref> Carlyle wrote an article titled "Ireland and [[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel]]" (signed "C.") published in April 1849 in ''[[The Spectator]]'' in response to two speeches given by Peel wherein he made many of the same proposals which Carlyle had earlier suggested; he called the speeches "like a prophecy of better things, inexpressibly cheering."<ref>Carlyle, Thomas. "[https://archive.org/details/sim_spectator-uk_1849-04-14_22_1085/page/343/mode/1up?view=theater Ireland and Sir Robert Peel]". ''Spectator'' 22 (14 April 1849): 343–334.</ref> In May, he published "Indian Meal", in which he advanced [[maize]] as a remedy to the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] as well as the worries of "disconsolate [[Malthusians]]".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=237}} He visited Ireland again with Duffy later that year while recording his impressions in his letters and a series of memoranda, published as ''Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849'' after his death; Duffy would publish his own memoir of their travels, ''Conversations with Carlyle''.{{Sfn|Duffy|1892}}

Carlyle's travels in Ireland deeply affected his views on society, as did the [[Revolutions of 1848]]. While embracing the latter as necessary in order to cleanse society of various forms of anarchy and misgovernment, he denounced their democratic undercurrent and insisted on the need for authoritarian leaders. These events inspired his next two works, "[[Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question]]" (1849), in which he coined the term "[[Dismal science|Dismal Science]]" to describe political economy, and ''[[Latter-Day Pamphlets]]'' (1850). The illiberal content of these works sullied Carlyle's reputation for some progressives, while endearing him to those that shared his views. In 1851, Carlyle wrote ''[[The Life of John Sterling]]'' as a corrective to [[Julius Hare (theologian)|Julius Hare]]'s unsatisfactory 1848 biography. In late September and early October, he made his second trip to Paris, where he met [[Adolphe Thiers]] and [[Prosper Mérimée]]; his account, "Excursion (Futile Enough) to Paris; Autumn 1851", was published posthumously.<ref>''Last Words of Thomas Carlyle'', 1892.</ref>

In 1852, Carlyle began research on [[Frederick the Great]], whom he had expressed interest in writing a biography of as early as 1830.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=5:102}} He travelled to Germany that year, examining source documents and prior histories. Carlyle struggled through research and writing, telling von Ense it was "the poorest, most troublesome and arduous piece of work he has ever undertaken".{{Sfn|Shepherd|1881|loc=2:168}} In 1856, the first two volumes of ''[[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great]]'' were sent to the press and published in 1858. During this time, he wrote "The Opera" (1852),<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://clyx.com/books/various/harper's_new_monthly_magazine_vol_iv._no._xx._january_1852/the_opera_by_thomas_carlyle.htm|title=The Opera|first=Thomas|last=Carlyle|magazine=[[Harper's New Monthly Magazine]]|volume=IV|number=XX|date=January 1852|via=Clyx.com}}</ref> "Project of a National Exhibition of Scottish Portraits" (1854) at the request of [[David Laing (antiquary)|David Laing]], and "The Prinzenraub" (1855). In October 1855, he finished ''The Guises'', a history of the [[House of Guise]] and its relation to Scottish history, which was first published in 1981.{{Sfn|Carlyle|1981}} Carlyle made a second expedition to Germany in 1858 to survey the topography of battlefields, which he documented in ''Journey to Germany, Autumn 1858'', published posthumously. In May 1863, Carlyle wrote the short dialogue "Ilias (Americana) in Nuce" (American [[Iliad]] in a Nutshell) on the topic of the [[American Civil War]]. Upon publication in August, the "Ilias" drew scornful letters from [[David Atwood Wasson]] and [[Horace Howard Furness]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=235}} In the summer of 1864, Carlyle lived at 117 Marina (built by [[James Burton (property developer)|James Burton]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=117–118 Marina, Non Civil Parish – 1353240 {{!}} Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1353240 |access-date=6 August 2022 |website=historicengland.org.uk |language=en}}</ref> in [[St Leonards-on-Sea]], in order to be nearer to his ailing wife who was in possession of caretakers there.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||pp=172–180}}

Carlyle planned to write four volumes but had written six by the time ''Frederick'' was finished in 1865. Before its end, Carlyle had developed a tremor in his writing hand.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=177}} Upon its completion, it was received as a masterpiece. He earned a [[sobriquet]], the "[[Sage (philosophy)|Sage]] of Chelsea",{{Sfn|Wilson||loc=6:3}} and in the eyes of those that had rebuked his politics, it restored Carlyle to his position as a great man of letters.<ref>{{Cite Americana|wstitle= Carlyle, Thomas |volume= V |last= Brewster |first= William Tenney |author-link= |short=1 }}</ref> Carlyle was elected [[Rector of the University of Edinburgh|Lord Rector of Edinburgh University]] in November 1865, succeeding [[William Ewart Gladstone]] and defeating [[Benjamin Disraeli]] by a vote of 657 to 310.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Symons |first=Julian |title=Thomas Carlyle: The Life & Ideas of a Prophet |publisher=House of Stratus |year=2001 |isbn=978-1842329368 |page=1 |chapter=The Imperfect Triumph}}</ref>

=== Final years (1866–1881) ===

[[File:Dr John Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, Miss Mary Aitken, Provost Swan (Crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Carlyle and his niece Mary Aitken, 1874]]

Carlyle travelled to Scotland to deliver his "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh" as Rector in April 1866. During his trip he was accompanied by [[John Tyndall]], [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] and [[Thomas Erskine (theologian)|Thomas Erskine]]. One of those that welcomed Carlyle on his arrival was Sir David Brewster, Principal of the university and the commissioner of Carlyle's first professional writings for the ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia''. Carlyle was joined onstage by his fellow travellers, Brewster, [[Moncure D. Conway]], [[George Harvey (painter)|George Harvey]], [[Lord Neaves]] and others. Carlyle spoke extemporaneously on several subjects, concluding his address with a quote from Goethe: "Work, and despair not: ''Wir heissen euch hoffen,'' 'We bid you be of hope!'" Tyndall reported to Jane in a three-word telegram that it was "A perfect triumph."{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=236–237}} The warm reception he received in his homeland of Scotland marked the climax of Carlyle's life as a writer. While still in Scotland, Carlyle received abrupt news of Jane's sudden death in London. Upon her death, Carlyle began to edit his wife's letters and write reminiscences of her. He experienced feelings of guilt as he read her complaints about her illnesses, his friendship with Lady Harriet Ashburton, and his devotion to his labour, particularly on ''Frederick the Great''. Although deep in grief, Carlyle remained active in public life.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=83}}

[[File:Mr. Carlyle delivering the address on his installation as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, April 2, 1866.jpg|thumb|Engraving depicting the Inaugural Address|left]]

Amidst controversy over Governor [[Edward John Eyre|John Eyre]]'s violent repression of the [[Morant Bay rebellion]], Carlyle assumed leadership of the Eyre Defence and Aid Fund in 1865 and 1866. The Defence had convened in response to the anti-Eyre [[Jamaica Committee]], led by Mill and backed by [[Charles Darwin]], [[Herbert Spencer]] and others. Carlyle and the Defence were supported by [[John Ruskin]], [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Charles Kingsley]].<ref>Hall, Catherine (2002). ''Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830–1867''. University of Chicago Press, p. 25.</ref><ref name="daiches90">D. Daiches ed., ''Companion to Literature 1'' (London, 1965), p. 90.</ref> From December 1866 to March 1867,{{Sfn|Nichol|1904|loc=Chapter VII. Decadence [1866–1881]}} Carlyle resided at the home of [[Louisa Baring, Lady Ashburton]] in [[Menton]], where he wrote reminiscences of Irving, Jeffrey, [[Robert Southey]], and [[William Wordsworth]]. In August, he published "Shooting [[Niagara Falls|Niagara]]: And After?", an essay in response and opposition to the [[Reform Act 1867|Second Reform Bill]].<ref>Trella, D. J. (1992). "Carlyle's 'Shooting Niagara': The Writing and Revising of an Article and Pamphlet", ''Victorian Periodicals Review'' '''25''' (1), pp. 30–34.</ref> In 1868 he wrote reminiscences of [[John Wilson (Scottish writer)|John Wilson]] and [[William Hamilton (metaphysician)|William Hamilton]], and his niece Mary Aitken Carlyle moved into 5 Cheyne Row, becoming his caretaker and assisting in the editing of Jane's letters. In March 1869 he met [[Queen Victoria]], who wrote in her journal of "Mr. Carlyle, the historian, a strange-looking eccentric old Scotchman, who holds forth, in a drawling melancholy voice, with a broad Scotch accent, upon Scotland and upon the utter degeneration of everything."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weintraub |first=Stanley |title=Victoria: An Intimate Biography |publisher=Dutton |year=1987 |isbn=978-0525244691 |location=New York |page=352}}</ref> In 1870 he was elected President of the London Library, and in November he wrote a letter to ''[[The Times]]'' in support of Germany in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. His conversation was recorded by a number of friends and visitors in later years, most notably [[William Allingham]], who became known as Carlyle's [[James Boswell]].{{Sfn|Allingham||p=202}}

[[File:Commemoration Medal for Thomas Carlyle LACMA 79.4.41 (2 of 5).jpg|thumb|Commemoration Medal for Thomas Carlyle, front]]

In the spring of 1874 Carlyle accepted the ''[[Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste]]'' from [[Otto von Bismarck]] and [[List of people who have declined a British honour|declined]] Disraeli's offers of a state pension and the [[Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath]] in the autumn. On the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 1875, he was presented with a commemorative medal crafted by [[Joseph Edgar Boehm|Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm]] and an address of admiration signed by 119 of the leading writers, scientists, and public figures of the day.{{Efn|For the letter, written by [[John Morley]] and [[David Masson]], and list of signatories, see ''New Letters of Thomas Carlyle'', edited by Alexander Carlyle, vol. II, pp. 323–324.}} "Early Kings of Norway", a recounting of historical material from the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic sagas]] transcribed by Mary acting as his [[amanuensis]],<ref>Ousby, I. (ed.), ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (Cambridge, 1995), p. 154.</ref> and an essay on "The Portraits of [[John Knox]]" (both 1875) were his last major writings to be published in his lifetime. In November 1876, he wrote a letter in the ''Times'' "On the [[Eastern question|Eastern Question]]", entreating England not to enter the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War]] on the side of the Turks. Another letter to the ''Times'' in May 1877 "On [[Great Eastern Crisis|the Crisis]]", urging against the rumoured wish of Disraeli's to send a fleet to the [[Baltic Sea]] and warning not to provoke Russia and Europe at large into a war against England, marked his last public utterance.{{sfn|Marrs|1968|p=790}} The [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] elected him a Foreign Honorary Member in 1878.<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf |access-date=23 September 2016 |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}</ref>

On 2 February 1881 Carlyle fell into a coma. For a moment he awakened, and Mary heard him speak his final words: "So this is Death—well ..."{{Sfn|Wilson|||pp=|loc=6:470–471}} He thereafter lost his speech and died on the morning of 5 February.{{Sfn|Froude||p=|loc=4:501}} An offer of interment at [[Westminster Abbey]], which he had anticipated, was declined by his executors in accordance with his will.<ref>Froude, James (1903). ''My Relations with Carlyle''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 70.</ref> He was laid to rest with his mother and father in Hoddam [[Kirkyard]] in Ecclefechan, according to old Scottish custom.{{Sfn|Wilson|||p=|loc=6:471}} His private funeral, held on 10 February, was attended by family and a few friends, including Froude, Conway, Tyndall and [[William Edward Hartpole Lecky|William Lecky]], as local residents looked on.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=83}}

== Works ==
{{Main|Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle|Thomas Carlyle's prose style}}
[[File:Carlyle's Seal.png|thumb|Carlyle's "Seal", sketched in 1823. Its Latin motto translates: "May I be wasted so that I be of use."{{Sfn|Blunt|1895|p=92}}]]
Carlyle's corpus spans the genres of "criticism, biography, history, politics, poetry, and religion."{{Sfn|Birrell|1885}} His innovative writing style, known as [[Carlylese]], greatly influenced [[Victorian literature]] and anticipated techniques of [[postmodern literature]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Ian |date=10 April 2012 |title=Retroview: Our Hero? |url=https://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/04/10/retroview-our-hero/ |access-date=5 February 2022 |website=[[The American Interest]]}}</ref>

In [[Carlylean philosophy|his philosophy]], while not adhering to any formal religion, Carlyle asserted the importance of belief during an age of increasing doubt. Much of his work is concerned with the modern human spiritual condition; he was the first writer to use the expression "[[meaning of life]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Wendell |title=Meaning of Life, The: Early Continental and Analytic Perspectives |url=https://iep.utm.edu/mean-ear/ |access-date=28 December 2022 |website=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |language=en-US}}</ref> In ''[[Sartor Resartus]]'' and in his early ''[[Miscellanies (Carlyle)|Miscellanies]]'', he developed his own [[philosophy of religion]] based upon what he called "[[Natural Supernaturalism]]",{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=1:202–212}} the idea that all things are "Clothes" which at once reveal and conceal the divine, that "a mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one",{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=27:388}} and that duty, work and silence are essential.

Carlyle postulated the [[Great Man theory]], a [[philosophy of history]] which contends that history is shaped by exceptional individuals. This approach to history was first promulgated in his lectures ''[[On Heroes]]'' and given specific focus in longer studies like ''[[Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches|Cromwell]]'' and ''[[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great|Frederick the Great]]''. He viewed history as a "Prophetic Manuscript" that progresses on a [[Social cycle theory|cyclical]] basis, analogous to the [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]] and the seasons. His [[historiographical]] method emphasises the relationship between the event at hand and all those which precede and follow it, which he makes apparent through use of the present (rather than past) tense in his ''[[The French Revolution (Carlyle)|French Revolution]]'' and in other histories.

Raising the "[[Condition-of-England Question]]"{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=29:118}} to address the impact of the [[Industrial Revolution]], Carlyle's [[Social philosophy|social]] and [[political philosophy]] is characterised by [[medievalism]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Taylor |first=Beverly |title=Medievalism |date=14 August 2015 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118405376.wbevl205 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature |pages=1–7 |editor-last=Felluga |editor-first=Dino Franco |access-date=15 April 2023 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118405376.wbevl205 |isbn=978-1-118-40537-6|url-access=subscription }}</ref> advocating a "[[Chivalry]] of Labour"{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=10:277}} led by "[[Captains of Industry]]".{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=28:271}} In works of social criticism such as ''[[Past and Present (book)|Past and Present]]'' and ''[[Latter-Day Pamphlets]]'', he attacked [[utilitarianism]] as mere [[atheism]] and [[egoism]],{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=11:219}} criticised the [[political economy]] of ''[[laissez-faire]]'' as the "[[Dismal Science]]",{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=29:354}} and rebuked "big black [[Democracy]]",{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=20:9}} while championing "''Hero''archy (Government of Heroes)".{{Sfn|''Works''||loc=5:12}}

== Character ==
[[File:Thomas Carlyle in 1851. Medallion modeled by Thomas Woolner.jpg|thumb|Medallion of Carlyle by [[Thomas Woolner]], 1851. [[James Caw]] said that it recalled [[Lady Eastlake]]'s description of him: "The head of a thinker, the eye of a lover, and the mouth of a peasant."{{Sfn|Dyer|1928|p=546}}]]
[[James Anthony Froude]] recalled his first impression of Carlyle:<blockquote>He was then fifty-four years old; tall (about five feet eleven), thin, but at that time upright, with no signs of the later stoop. His body was angular, his face beardless, such as it is represented in Woolner's medallion,{{Efn|Pictured.}} which is by far the best likeness of him in the days of his strength. His head was extremely long, with the chin thrust forward; his neck was thin; the mouth firmly closed, the under lip slightly projecting; the hair grizzled and thick and bushy. His eyes, which grew lighter with age, were then of a deep violet, with fire burning at the bottom of them, which flashed out at the least excitement. The face was altogether most striking, most impressive in every way.{{Sfn|Froude||p=|loc=3:391}}</blockquote>He was often recognised by his [[wideawake hat]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sutherland |first=Liz |date=2005 |title='As others dress to live, he lives to dress.' |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/carlyle_papers_no._18.pdf#page=30 |journal=Carlyle Society Occasional Papers |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |issue=18 |page=30 }}</ref>

Carlyle was a renowned conversationalist. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] described him as "an immense talker, as extraordinary in his conversation as in his writing,—I think even more so." [[Charles Darwin]] considered him "the most worth listening to, of any man I know."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Darwin |first=Charles |url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-481.xml |title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin |year=1839 |editor-last=Burkhardt |editor-first=Frederick |volume=2 |publication-date=1985 |page=155 |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Sydney}}</ref> [[William Lecky]] noted his "singularly musical voice" which "quite took away anything grotesque in the very strong Scotch accent" and "gave it a softening or charm".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=275}} [[Henry Fielding Dickens]] recollected that he was "gifted with a high sense of humour, and when he laughed he did so heartily, throwing his head back and letting himself go."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Carlyle |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Jcarlyle.htm |access-date=9 August 2022 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref> [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]] remembered his "broad, honest, human laugh", one that "cleared the air like thunder, and left the atmosphere sweet."{{Sfn|Higginson|1909|pp=5–6}} [[Lady Eastlake]] called it "the best laugh I ever heard".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010108405 |title=Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake |publisher=John Murray |year=1895 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Charles Eastlake |volume=1 |location=London |pages=118}}</ref>

[[Charles Eliot Norton]] wrote that Carlyle's "essential nature was solitary in its strength, its sincerity, its tenderness, its nobility. He was nearer [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] than any other man."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Letters of Charles Eliot Norton |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=1913 |editor-last=Norton |editor-first=Sara |volume=II |location=Boston and New York |pages=147 |chapter=To John Ruskin, Shady Hill, April 3, 1883 |editor2-last=Howe |editor2-first=M. A. DeWolfe |editor-link2=Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe (writer)}}</ref> [[Frederic Harrison]] similarly observed that "Carlyle walked about London like Dante in the streets of [[Verona]], gnawing his own heart and dreaming dreams of [[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]. To both the passers-by might have said, See! there goes the man who has seen hell".<ref>Harrison, Frederic. ''The Choice of Books, and Other Literary Pieces''. London: Macmillan, 1912. pp. 180–181.</ref> Higginson rather felt that [[Jean Paul]]'s humorous character [[Siebenkäs]] "came nearer to the actual Carlyle than most of the grave portraitures yet executed", for, like Siebenkäs, Carlyle was "a satirical improvisatore".{{Sfn|Higginson|1909|p=12}} Emerson saw Carlyle as "not mainly a scholar", but "a practical Scotchman, such as you would find in any saddler's or iron-dealer's shop, and then only accidentally and by a surprising addition, the admirable scholar and writer he is."<ref name=":8">Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1881). "[https://www.bartleby.com/90/1018.html XVIII. Carlyle]". ''The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson''. Vol. X. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company (published 1904).</ref>

[[Paul Elmer More]] found Carlyle "a figure unique, isolated, domineering—after [[Dr. Johnson]] the greatest personality in English letters, possibly even more imposing than that acknowledged dictator."<ref>Moore, Paul Elmer (1904). [[iarchive:shelburneessays33moregoog/page/n98/mode/2up|"The Spirit of Carlyle"]]. ''Shelburne Essays: First Series''. New York and London: [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]. p. 102.</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Influence ===
{{See also|Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle#Influence|Thomas Carlyle's prose style#Reception}}[[File:Thomas Carlyle Statue 6b.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of Thomas Carlyle]] in Chelsea]][[File:Statue_of_Thomas_Carlyle_by_Mario_Raggi,_circa_1892,_at_Chelsea_Library.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Thomas Carlyle by [[Mario Raggi]] c. 1892, displayed at Chelsea Library]]

[[George Eliot]] summarised Carlyle's impact in 1855:<blockquote>It is an idle question to ask whether his books will be read a century hence: if they were all burnt as the grandest of [[Suttee]]s on his funeral pile, it would be only like cutting down an oak after its acorns have sown a forest. For there is hardly a superior or active mind of this generation that has not been modified by Carlyle's writings; there has hardly been an English book written for the last ten or twelve years that would not have been different if Carlyle had not lived.<ref>George Eliot, "Thomas Carlyle", ''George Eliot Archive'', accessed March 12, 2022, https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/96.</ref></blockquote>Carlyle's two most important followers were [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]] and [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]]. In the 19th century, Emerson was often thought of as "the American Carlyle",{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=145}} and he described himself in 1870 as "Lieutenant" to Carlyle's "General in Chief".{{Sfn|Jackson|1948|p=14}} Ruskin publicly acknowledged that Carlyle was the author to whom he "owed more than to any other living writer",<ref>Cook, E. T.; Wedderburn, Alexander, eds. (1904). [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/ruskin/12EdinburghLectures.pdf#page=611 "Appendix to Part II"]. ''Lectures on Architecture and Painting (Edinburgh, 1853) with Other Papers (1844–1854)''. The Works of John Ruskin. Vol. XII. London: George Allen. p. 507.</ref> and would frequently refer to him as his "master", writing after Carlyle's death that he was "throwing myself now into the mere fulfilment of Carlyle's work".<ref>Cook, E. T.; Wedderburn, Alexander, eds. (1909). [https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/ruskin/36-37Letters.pdf#page=1121 "Carlyle's Work"]. ''The Letters of John Ruskin (1870–1899)''. The Works of John Ruskin. Vol. XXXVII. London: George Allen. p. 345.</ref>

The British philosopher [[J. H. Muirhead]] wrote that in his rejection of [[philosophical scepticism]] and embrace of [[German idealism]], Carlyle "exercised an influence in England and America that no other did upon the course of philosophical thought of his time".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muirhead |first=John H. |title=The Platonic Tradition in Anglo-Saxon Philosophy |publisher=George Allen & Unwin Ltd |year=1931 |location=London |page=127}}</ref>

==== Literature ====
{{See also|List of allusions to Carlyle in literature}}

"The most explosive impact in English literature during the nineteenth century is unquestionably Thomas Carlyle's", writes [[Lionel Stevenson]]. "From about 1840 onward, no author of prose or poetry was immune from his influence."{{Sfn|Clubbe|1976|p=257}} By 1960 he had become "the single most frequent topic of doctoral dissertations in the field of Victorian literature".{{Sfn|Fielding|Tarr|1976|p=50}} While preparing for a study of his own, the German scholar [[Gerhart von Schulze-Gävernitz]] found himself overwhelmed by the amount of material already written about Carlyle—in 1894.{{Sfn|Tennyson|1973|p=35}}

Authors on whom Carlyle's influence was particularly strong include [[Matthew Arnold]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=18–19}} [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=40}} [[Robert Browning]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=42}} [[Arthur Hugh Clough]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=93}} Dickens, Disraeli, George Eliot,{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=142}} [[Elizabeth Gaskell]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=186–188}} [[Frank Harris]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=209}} Kingsley, [[George Henry Lewes]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=284}} [[David Masson]], [[George Meredith]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=318|loc="Meredith, George"}} Mill, [[Margaret Oliphant]], [[Luigi Pirandello]],{{sfn|McCollum|2007|p=46}} [[Marcel Proust]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sorensen |first=David R. |date=2008 |title='A Flowing Light-Fountain': Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and the Architecture of Heroism in The Stones of Venice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26592962 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |issue=24 |pages=77–84 |jstor=26592962 |issn=1074-2670}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=O’Beirne |first=Catherine |date=2014 |title='A "cup of tea" as our friends across the Channel say': Marcel Proust Reads Carlyle intime |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26594458 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |issue=30 |pages=73–90 |jstor=26594458 |issn=1074-2670}}</ref> Ruskin, [[George Bernard Shaw]]<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Devries |first=Ella Mae Scales |date=1976 |title=Thomas Carlyle and Bernard Shaw as Critics of Religion and Society |type=Doctoral dissertation |publisher=University of Nebraska–Lincoln |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI7700934 |id={{ProQuest|302812510}} |oclc=2686224}}</ref> and [[Walt Whitman]].<ref>{{Cite web |first=Matthew C. |last=Altman|title=Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) |website= The Walt Whitman Archive |url=https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_179.html |access-date=1 July 2022 }} General editors Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom & Kenneth M. Price.</ref> [[Germaine Brée]] has shown the considerable impact that Carlyle had on the thought of [[André Gide]].{{Sfn|Tennyson|1973|p=65}} Carlylean influence is also seen in the writings of [[Ryūnosuke Akutagawa]], [[Leopoldo Alas]],{{sfn|McCollum|2007|p=66}} [[Marcu Beza]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[the Brontës]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carlyle and Brontë on the Religiosity of the Victorian Age |url=https://victorianweb.org/authors/carlyle/hudson/61hs1.html |access-date=27 June 2022 |website=victorianweb.org}}</ref> [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], [[Antonio Fogazzaro]],{{sfn|McCollum|2007|p=46}} [[E. M. Forster]], [[Ángel Ganivet]], [[Lafcadio Hearn]], [[William Ernest Henley]], [[Marietta Holley]], [[Rudyard Kipling]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chesterton |first=G. K. |date=1913 |title=The Victorian Age in Literature |url=https://www.victorianweb.org/authors/chesterton/carlyle4.html |website=Victorian Web}}</ref> [[Selma Lagerlöf]], [[Herman Melville]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=316–317}} [[Alfredo Panzini]],{{sfn|McCollum|2007|p=46}} [[Edgar Quinet]], [[Samuel Smiles]], [[Tokutomi Sohō]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marcus |first=Marvin |date=1985 |title=Mori Ōgai and Biography as a Literary Genre in Japan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23539089 |journal=Biography |volume=8 |issue=3 |page=213 |jstor=23539089 |issn=0162-4962}}</ref> Lord Tennyson, [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], [[Anthony Trollope]], [[Miguel de Unamuno]], [[Alexandru Vlahuță]] and [[Vasile Voiculescu]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Lemny |first=Stefan |title=Carlyle's Impact on Romanian Culture |date=1987 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945694 |journal=Carlyle Newsletter |issue=8 |pages=1–6 |jstor=44945694 |issn=0269-8226}}</ref>{{Sfn|Tennyson|1973|pp=61–72}}

Carlyle's German essays and translations as well as his own writings were pivotal to the development of the English ''[[Bildungsroman]]''.{{Sfn|Kerry|Pionke|Dent|2018|pp=246, 319}} His concept of symbols influenced French literary [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]].{{Sfn|Fielding|Tarr|1976|p=47}} The Victorian specialist Alice Chandler writes that the influence of his medievalism is "found throughout the literature of the Victorian age".{{Sfn|Chandler|1970|pp=150–151}}

Carlyle's influence was also felt in the negative sense. [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], whose comments on Carlyle throughout his writings range from high praise to scathing critique, once wrote to [[John Morley]] that Carlyle was "the illustrious enemy whom we all lament", reflecting a view of Carlyle as a totalising figure to be rebelled against.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=457–459}}

Despite the broad [[Modernism|Modernist]] reaction against the Victorians, the influence of Carlyle has been traced in the writings of [[T. S. Eliot]],{{Sfn|Kerry|Pionke|Dent|2018|pp=4–6}} [[James Joyce]], [[Wyndham Lewis]]{{Sfn|Kerry|Pionke|Dent|2018|pp=319–332|loc="''Finnegans Wake'' as 'Sartor's Risorted' or ''Sartor'' Retold: Recovering the Hidden Carlyle in Joyce"}} and [[D. H. Lawrence]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kinser |first=Brent E. |date=2001 |title='A mixture of yea and nay': D. H. Lawrence, His 'Last Poems', and the Presence of Thomas Carlyle |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945804 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |issue=20 |pages=82–104 |jstor=44945804 |issn=1074-2670}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' credits Carlyle with the first quotation in 547 separate entries, the 45th-highest of all English-language authors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ingram |first=Malcolm |date=2013 |title=Carlylese |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/carlyle_papers_no._26.pdf |journal=Carlyle Society Occasional Papers |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |volume= |issue=26 |pages=9–10, 19}}</ref>

==== Social and political movements ====

[[File:Carlyle Woodcut.jpg|thumb|upright|"Never had [[political progressivism]] a foe it could more heartily respect" (Walt Whitman).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitman |first=Walt |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8813/8813-h/8813-h.htm#link2H_4_0001 |title=Specimen Days |year=1882 |chapter=Carlyle from American Points of View}}</ref> Woodcut by [[Robert Bryden]], 1901]]

Politically, Carlyle's influence spans across ideologies, from conservatism and nationalism to communism. He is acknowledged as an essential influence on [[Young England]] conservatism,<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Kegel |first=Charles H. |date=1961 |title=Lord John Manners and the Young England Movement: Romanticism in Politics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/444286 |journal=The Western Political Quarterly |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=691–697 |doi=10.2307/444286 |issn=0043-4078 |jstor=444286|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Christian socialism]],{{Sfn|Norman|1987|pp=10–11}} and the ''[[fin de siècle]]'' labour movement.{{Sfn|Mendilow|1984}} His work is referenced in the writings of a diverse range of political writers, including [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]],{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=149–150, 310}} [[Mahatma Gandhi]],<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Ali |first=Syed Ashraf |date=16 August 2010 |title=Gandhi and Islam |url=https://www.islamicity.org/3910/gandhi-and-islam/ |access-date=13 July 2022 |website=IslamiCity}}</ref> and [[Richard Wagner]].<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Wagner |first=Richard |title=The Art-Work of the Future and Other Works |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=1993 |location=Lincoln and London |page=29 |translator-last=Ellis |translator-first=William Ashton |translator-link=William Ashton Ellis}}</ref> The prominent [[Young Ireland]] nationalist [[John Mitchel]]{{Sfn|Duffy|1892|pp=4, 24}} and the [[Antebellum South]] secessionist [[George Fitzhugh]]<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Roel Reyes |first=Stefan |date=12 January 2022 |title='There must be a new world if there is to be any world at all!': Thomas Carlyle's illiberal influence on George Fitzhugh |journal=[[Journal of Political Ideologies]] |language=en |volume=29 |pages=79–97 |doi=10.1080/13569317.2022.2026906 |issn=1356-9317 |s2cid=245952334 |quote=Carlyle presented slavery as a system superior to the free wage labour promoted by laissez-faire capitalists. He argued that black slaves benefited from the security of shelter and food provided by a master – which free labourers black or white did not – while slave masters benefitted from their labour. |doi-access=free|hdl=1871.1/898b201d-6799-4e2b-bcab-bc96e8521654 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> were both deeply influenced by Carlyle. [[Jamshedji Tata]], the prominent Indian industrialist and philanthropist who founded the [[Tata Group]], India's largest conglomerate company, was influenced by Carlyle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lala |first=R. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hicrS8S7FRMC&dq=%22Tilak%22%20%22Thomas%20Carlyle%22&pg=PA23 |title=For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata |date=2006 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-306206-6 |page=23 |language=en}}</ref> Many social reformers were inspired by him, including [[Octavia Hill]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfb6vlTyxYM |title=The Legacy of Thomas Carlyle : A conversation between Simon Heffer, Ian Hislop and AN Wilson |date=23 March 2017 |last= |type=YouTube video |publisher=London and South East National Trust |time=7:33}}</ref> [[Emmeline Pankhurst]],<ref name=":5">E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 3.</ref> [[Jane Addams]],<ref name=":6">{{Citation |last=Hamington |first=Maurice |title=Jane Addams |date=2022 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/addams-jane/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |access-date=9 August 2022 |edition=Fall 2022 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Dickerson|first=V. D. |date=2010|title=Dark Victorians|location=Champaign|publisher=University of Illinois Press|page=92}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Juguo |first=Zhang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Xt_DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Du%20Bois%22%20%22Thomas%20Carlyle%22&pg=PA29 |title=W.E.B. Du Bois: The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Line |date=2019-01-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-72268-7 |language=en}}</ref> and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Raab |first=Nathan |title=10 People Who Inspired Martin Luther King (And He Hoped Would Inspire Us) |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanraab/2014/01/20/10-people-who-inspired-martin-luther-king-and-he-hoped-would-inspire-us/ |access-date=4 August 2023 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> More recently figures associated with [[neoreaction]] and the [[alt-right]] have claimed Carlyle as an influence, notably [[Curtis Yarvin]],{{Sfn|Moldbug|2016|loc=Chapter 1: From Mises to Carlyle: My Sick Journey to the Dark Side of the Force}} [[Jonathan Bowden]]<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Bowden |first=Jonathan |title=Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics |publisher=Counter-Currents |year=2017 |isbn=978-1940933481 |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=Greg |editor-link=Greg Johnson (white nationalist) |location=San Francisco |chapter=Thomas Carlyle: The Sage of Chelsea |chapter-url=https://counter-currents.com/2014/11/thomas-carlyle-the-sage-of-chelsea-2/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507164534/https://counter-currents.com/2014/11/thomas-carlyle-the-sage-of-chelsea-2/ |archive-date=7 May 2021}}</ref> and [[Kerry Bolton]].<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |last=Bolton |first=Kerry |date=9 October 2020 |title=Hendrik de Man, The Right, & Ethical Socialism |url=https://counter-currents.com/2020/10/hendrik-de-man/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326145022/https://counter-currents.com/2020/10/hendrik-de-man/ |archive-date=26 March 2022 |website=Counter-Currents}}</ref>

Scholars have been divided on whether Carlyle himself was conservative: [[Herbert Tingsten]] and [[Richard Reeves (British author)|Richard Reeves]] argue that he was, while [[Simon Heffer]] claims that he was not.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frykman |first1=Erik |title=Carlyle's Reception and Influence in Sweden |journal=Studies in Scottish Literature |date=1984 |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=33 |url=https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1123&context=ssl |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Swaim |first1=Barton |title=Carlyle the wise |url=https://newcriterion.com/issues/2010/2/carlyle-the-wise |access-date=14 November 2023 |work=[[The New Criterion]] |date=February 2010}}</ref>

==== Art ====

Carlyle's medievalist critique of industrial practice and political economy was an early utterance of what would become the spirit of both the [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]] and the [[Arts and Crafts movement]], and several leading members recognised his importance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sussman |first=Herbert L. |url=https://archive.org/details/factintofigurety0000suss |title=Fact into Figure: Typology in Carlyle, Ruskin, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |publisher=Ohio State University Press |year=1979 |location=Columbus |isbn=978-0814203019 |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[John William Mackail]], a friend and the official biographer of William Morris, wrote that in the years of Morris and [[Edward Burne-Jones]] attendance at the University of Oxford, ''Past and Present'' stood as "inspired and absolute truth."<ref>Mackail, J. W. (2011). ''The Life of William Morris''. New York: Dover Publications. p.&nbsp;38. {{ISBN|978-0486287935}}.</ref> Morris read a letter from Carlyle at the first public meeting of the [[Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings]].<ref>Mackail, p. 346.</ref> [[Fiona MacCarthy]], a recent biographer, affirmed that Morris was "deeply and lastingly" indebted to Carlyle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=MacCarthy |first=Fiona |title=William Morris: A Life for our Time |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1994 |location=London |page=71}}</ref> [[William Holman Hunt]] considered Carlyle to be a mentor of his. He used Carlyle as one of the models for the head of Christ in ''[[The Light of the World (Hunt)|The Light of the World]]'' and showed great concern for Carlyle's portrayal in [[Ford Madox Brown]]'s painting ''[[Work (painting)|Work]]'' (1865).{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=232–233|loc="Hunt, William Holman"}} Carlyle helped [[Thomas Woolner]] to find work early in his career and throughout, and he would become "a kind of surrogate son" to the Carlyles, referring to Carlyle as "the dear old philosopher".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=498–499|loc="Woolner, Thomas"}} [[Phoebe Anna Traquair]] depicted Carlyle, one of her favourite writers, in murals painted for the [[Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh|Royal Hospital for Sick Children]] and [[St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal)|St Mary's Cathedral]] in Edinburgh.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Blakesley |first=Rosalind P. |title=The Arts and Crafts Movement |publisher=Phaidon Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0714849676}}</ref> According to Marylu Hill, the [[Roycroft]]ers were "very influenced by Carlyle's words about work and the necessity of work", with his name appearing frequently in their writings, which are held at [[Villanova University]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbAlSqGouwY |title=Thomas Carlyle Rediscovered |date=15 November 2010 |type=YouTube video |publisher=villanovauniversity |time=40:10 |via= |people=}}</ref>

Thackeray wrote that Carlyle had done more than any other to give "[[art for art's sake]] ... its independence."{{Sfn|Sanders|1977|p=234}} Roberts explains that Carlyle "did much to set the stage for the [[Aesthetic Movement]]" through both his German and original writings, noting that he even popularised (if not introduced) the term "''[[Aesthetics|Æesthetics]]''" into the English language, leading her to declare him as "the apostle of aesthetics in England, 1825–27."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=ap Roberts |first=Ruth |date=1991 |title=Carlyle and the Aesthetic Movement |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945538 |journal=Carlyle Annual |issue=12 |pages=57–64 |jstor=44945538 |url-access=registration }}</ref> Carlyle's rhetorical style and his views on art also provided a foundation for aestheticism, particularly that of [[Walter Pater]], Wilde and [[W. B. Yeats]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Agnew |first=Lois |date=1998 |title=Heroic Intensity: Thomas Carlyle's Rhetorical Foundation for Victorian Aestheticism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945773 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |issue=18 |pages=167–173 |jstor=44945773 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

== Controversies ==

=== Froude controversy ===
{{Further information|Reminiscences (Carlyle)#The Froude-Carlyle controversy|James Anthony Froude#Life of Carlyle controversy (1881–1903)}}
[[File:Froude_besmirching_Carlyle.jpg|thumb|"Froude besmirching Carlyle", illustration from ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'s Almanac'', 31 December 1881]]
Carlyle had entrusted his papers to the care of [[James Anthony Froude]] after his death but was unclear about the permissions granted to him. Froude edited and published the ''[[Reminiscences (Carlyle)|Reminiscences]]'' in 1881, which sparked controversy due to Froude's failure to excise comments that might offend living persons, as was common practice at the time. The book damaged Carlyle's reputation, as did the following ''Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle'' and the four-volume biography of life as written by Froude. The image that Froude presented of Carlyle and his marriage was highly negative, prompting new editions of the ''Reminiscences'' and the letters by [[Charles Eliot Norton]] and Alexander Carlyle (husband of Carlyle's niece), who argued that, among other things, Froude had mishandled the materials entrusted to him in a deliberate and dishonest manner. This argument overshadowed Carlyle's work for decades. [[Owen Dudley Edwards]] remarked that by the turn of the century, "Carlyle was known more than read".{{Sfn|Kerry|Pionke|Dent|2018|p=306}} As Campbell describes:<blockquote>The effect of Froude’s work in the years following Carlyle’s death was extraordinary. Almost overnight, it seemed, Carlyle plunged from his position as Sage of Chelsea and Grand Old Victorian to the object of puzzled dislike, or even of revulsion.{{Sfn|Campbell|1987|p=58}}</blockquote>

=== Racism and antisemitism ===
Fielding writes that Carlyle "was often ready to play up to being a caricature of prejudice".{{Sfn|''CLO''||loc=Introduction to Volume 27}} Targets for his ire included the French, the Irish, Slavs,{{Sfn|Allingham||p=241}} Turks, Americans, Catholics, and, most explicitly, blacks and Jews. According to Duffy, when he charged Carlyle with having "taught [[John Mitchel|[John] Mitchel]] to oppose the liberation of the negroes and the emancipation of the Jews", Carlyle replied:<blockquote>Mitchel ... would be found to be right in the end; the black man could not be emancipated from the laws of nature, which had pronounced a very decided decree on the question, and neither could the Jew.{{Sfn|Duffy|1892|p=117}}</blockquote>In his biography of Carlyle, Fred Kaplan suggests that Carlyle "resembled most of his contemporaries" in his beliefs about Jews, identifying them with capitalist materialism and outmoded religious orthodoxy.{{Sfn|Kaplan|1983|p=526}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=Fred |title=Thomas Carlyle: A Biography |date=1993 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0520082007 |quote=Carlyle's active anti-Semitism was based primarily upon his identification of Jews with materialism and with an anachronistic religious structure. He was repelled by those 'old clothes' merchants ... by 'East End' orthodoxy, and by 'West End' Jewish wealth, merchants clothed in new money who seemed to epitomise the intense material corruption of Western society.}}</ref> Throughout the late 1840s, Carlyle privately pondered the need for England to make an "Exodus from Houndsditch", and to discard "Hebrew Old-Clothes" in religion. In June 1861, Charles Dickens reported to William Macready that "Carlyle has greatly intensified his aversion to Jews, and is greatly enraged by beholding the gradual rise of a Mansion that Rothschild is building next the Duke of Wellington's." Dickens recounted Carlyle's vision of Queen Victoria summoning Rothschild before her and threatening to pull the teeth out of his "Mosaic head" unless he repaid his "millions of ill gotten Money".{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=252}} Carlyle had once considered writing a book called ''Exodus from [[Houndsditch]]'',{{Efn|Houndsditch is a mercantile district in the [[East End of London]] that was associated with Jewish merchants of used clothing.}} "a pealing off of fetid ''Jewhood'' in every sense from myself and my poor bewildered brethren".{{Sfn|Slater|1964|p=428}} Froude described Carlyle's aversion to the Jews as "[[Teutonic Order#Influence on German and Polish nationalism and Soviet patriotism|Teutonic]]". He felt they had contributed nothing to the "wealth" of mankind, contrasting "the Jews with their morbid imaginations and foolish sheepskin [[Targum]]s" with "The Norse with their steel swords guided by fresh valiant hearts and clear veracious understanding".{{Sfn|Froude||loc=4:449}}{{Sfn|Froude||loc=2:13}} Carlyle refused an invitation by [[Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1st Baronet|Baron Rothschild]] in 1848 to support a Bill in Parliament to allow [[Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom|voting rights for Jews in the United Kingdom]], asking [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Richard Monckton Milnes]] in a correspondence how a Jew could "try to be Senator, or even Citizen, of any Country, except his own wretched Palestine", and expressed his hope that they would "arrive" in Palestine "as soon as possible".{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=22:187}}

Carlyle argued that [[slavery]] was preferable to [[Laissez-faire capitalism|''laissez-faire'' capitalism]].<ref name=":10" /> Henry Crabb Robinson heard Carlyle at dinner in 1837 speak approvingly of slavery. "It is a natural aristocracy, that of ''colour'', and quite right that the stronger and better race should have dominion!"<ref>Robinson, Henry Crabb (1938). ''Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and their Writers''. 3 vols. Ed. [[Edith J. Morley]]. London: Dent. 2:541.</ref> The 1853 pamphlet "[[Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question|Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question]]" expressed concern for the excesses of the practice, considering "How to abolish the abuses of slavery, and save the precious thing in it."<ref>{{cite book|title=Carlyle's Latter-Day Pamphlets|editor-first=Michael K. |editor-last=Goldberg|editor2=Jules P. Seigel|location=Ottawa|publisher=Canadian Federation for the Humanities|date=1983|page=451}}</ref> Carlyle's defences of slavery contributed to his enduring popularity among pro-slavery figures of the [[antebellum South]].<ref name=":10" /> But liberals in Britain and the American North disputed such arguments, and among the objectors was the abolitionist Mill, in the anonymous essay "The Negro Question".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldberg |first=David Theo |author-link=David Theo Goldberg|date=2000 |title=Liberalism's Limits: Carlyle and Mill on 'The Negro Question' |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08905490008583508 |journal=Nineteenth-Century Contexts |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=203–216 |doi=10.1080/08905490008583508 |issn=0890-5495|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the modern era, the London Library has removed its bust of Carlyle from public display, and states that "Carlyle's racist views are completely unacceptable and the London Library does not share them."<ref>{{cite web |title=The London Library and Thomas Carlyle |publisher=London Library |url=https://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/thomas-carlyle |access-date=13 February 2025 }}</ref>

=== Prussianist and Nazi appropriation ===
From Goethe's recognition of Carlyle as "a moral force of great importance" in 1827 to the celebration of his centennial as though he were a national hero in 1895, Carlyle had long enjoyed a high reputation in Germany.{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=393–394}} Passages from ''Frederick'' were even part of the curriculum in German schools. Carlyle's support of Bismarck and the [[Silesian Wars]] led to suspicion during the First World War that he would have supported the [[German Empire]] and its leaders (such as [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]] and [[Gottlieb von Jagow]]). [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] nations largely regarded Carlyle as a [[Prussianism|Prussianist]], the "spiritual brother of [[Clausewitz]] and Treitschke." Prussian statesmen had identified Carlyle's "gospel of force" with their doctrine of {{lang|de|Weltmacht oder Untergang}} (World Power or Downfall) in order to "make their own side respectable." Herbert L. Stewart defended Carlyle's memory by arguing that besides a shared opposition to democracy, his belief that "Right makes Might"{{Efn|In his journal, Carlyle wrote that "right is the eternal symbol of might", and described himself thus: "never [was there] a son of [[Adam]] more contemptuous of might except where it rests on the above origin."{{Sfn|Froude||loc=4:422}}}} is "far removed" from "the ethic of [[militarism]]", and his "[[Puritans|Puritan]] [[Theodicy]]" has nothing to do with the "Immoralism of German {{lang|de|Kriegsherren}}" ([[Warlords]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stewart |first=Herbert L. |date=1918 |title=The Alleged Prussianism of Thomas Carlyle |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2377535 |journal=[[International Journal of Ethics]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=159–178 |doi=10.1086/intejethi.28.2.2377535 |jstor=2377535 |s2cid=159741457 |issn=1526-422X |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

With [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|the rise]] of [[Adolf Hitler]], many agreed with the assessment of K. O. Schmidt in 1933, who came to see Carlyle as {{lang|de|den ersten englischen Nationalsozialisten}} (the first English [[National Socialist]]). [[William Joyce]] (founder of the [[National Socialist League (United Kingdom)|National Socialist League]] and the Carlyle Club, a cultural arm of the NSL named for Carlyle){{Sfn|Cole|1964|p=80}} wrote of how "Germany has repaid him for his scholarship on her behalf by honouring his philosophy when it is scorned in Britain."{{Sfn|Joyce|1940|p=165}} German academics viewed him as having been immersed in and an outgrowth of German culture, just as National Socialism was. They proposed that ''Heroes and Hero-Worship'' justified the ''[[Führerprinzip]]'' (Leadership principle). Theodor Jost wrote in 1935: "Carlyle established, in fact, the mission of the Führer historically and philosophically. He fights, himself a Führer, vigorously against the masses, he ... becomes a pathfinder for new thoughts and forms." Parallels were also drawn between Carlyle's critique of Victorian England in ''Latter-Day Pamphlets'' and Nazi opposition to the [[Weimar Republic]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|pp=393–394}}

Some believed that Carlyle was German by blood. Echoing [[Paul Hensel]]'s earlier claim in 1901 that Carlyle's ''Volkscharakter'' (Folk character) had preserved "the peculiarity of the [[Low German]] tribe", [[Egon Friedell]], an anti-Nazi and Jewish Austrian, explained in 1935 that Carlyle's affinity with Germany stemmed from his being "a Scotsman of the [[Scottish Lowlands|lowlands]], where the [[Celts|Celtic]] imprint is far more marginal than it is with the [[Scottish Highlands|High Scottish]] and the Low German element is even stronger than it is in England."{{Sfn|Kerry|Hill|2010|p=196}} Others regarded him, if not ethnically German, as a ''[[Geist]] von unserem Geist'' (Spirit from our Spirit), as Karl Richter wrote in 1937: "Carlyle's [[ethos]] is the ethos of the [[Nordic race|Nordic]] soul par excellence."{{Sfn|Kerry|Hill|2010|p=193}}

In 1945 [[Joseph Goebbels]] frequently sought consolation from Carlyle's ''History of'' ''Frederick the Great''. Goebbels read passages from the book to Hitler during his last days in the ''[[Führerbunker]]'' in the [[Battle of Berlin]].{{Sfn|Kerry|Hill|2010|p=200}} While some Germans were eager to claim Carlyle for the Reich, others were more aware of incompatibilities. In 1936 Theodor Deimel argued that because of the "profound difference" between Carlyle's philosophical foundation of "a personally shaped religious idea" and the ''[[Völkisch]]'' foundation of National Socialism, the designation of Carlyle as the "first National Socialist" is "mistaken".{{Sfn|Kerry|Hill|2010|p=197}} [[Ernst Cassirer]] rejected the notion of Carlyle as proto-fascist in ''The Myth of the State'' (1946), emphasizing the moral underpinning of his thought. G. B. Tennyson has also commented that Carlyle's anti-modernist and anti-egoist stances disqualify him from association with 20th-century [[totalitarianism]].{{Sfn|Tennyson|1973|pp=79–80}}

==Bibliography==

{{main|Bibliography of Thomas Carlyle}}

=== By Carlyle ===

==== Major works ====
The standard edition of Carlyle's works is the ''Works in Thirty Volumes'', also known as the ''Centenary Edition''. The date given is when the work was "originally published."
* {{Cite book |title=The Works of Thomas Carlyle in Thirty Volumes |publisher=[[Chapman and Hall]] |year=1896–1899 |editor-last=Traill |editor-first=Henry Duff |editor-link=Henry Duff Traill |location=London |ref={{harvid|Works}}}}
** Vol. I. ''[[Sartor Resartus]]: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books'' (1831)
** Vols. II–IV. ''[[The French Revolution: A History]]'' (1837)
** Vol. V. ''[[On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History|On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History]]'' (1841)
** Vols. VI–IX. ''[[Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches]]: with Elucidations'' (1845)
** Vol. X. [[Past and Present (book)|''Past and Present'']] (1843)
** Vol. XI. ''[[The Life of John Sterling]]'' (1851)
** Vols. XII–XIX. ''[[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great]]'' (1858–1865)
** Vol. XX. ''[[Latter-Day Pamphlets]]'' (1850)
** Vols. XXI–XXII. ''German Romance: Translations from the German, with Biographical and Critical Notices'' (1827)
** Vols. XXIII–XXIV. ''Wilhelm Meister's [[Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship|Apprenticeship]] and [[Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years|Travels]], Translated from the German of Goethe'' (1824)
** Vol. XXV. ''The Life of Friedrich Schiller, Comprehending an Examination of His Works'' (1825)
** Vols. XXVI–XXX. ''[[Critical and Miscellaneous Essays]]''

==== Marginalia ====
This is a list of selected books, pamphlets and broadsides uncollected in the ''Miscellanies'' through 1880 as well as posthumous first editions and unpublished manuscripts.{{Sfn|Tarr|1989}}
* ''[https://archive.org/details/sim_spectator-uk_1849-04-14_22_1085/page/343/mode/1up?view=theater Ireland and Sir Robert Peel]'' (1849)
* ''Legislation for Ireland'' (1849)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/sim_spectator-uk_1848-05-13_21_1037/page/463/mode/1up?view=theater Ireland and the British Chief Governor]'' (1849)
* Froude, James Anthony, ed. (1881). [[Reminiscences (Carlyle)|''Reminiscences'']]. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
* ''Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849'' (1882). London: [[Sampson Low]], Marston, Searle & Rivington.
* ''Last Words of Thomas Carlyle: On Trades-Unions, Promoterism and the Signs of the Times'' (1882). 67 Princes Street, Edinburgh: William Paterson.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1883). ''[[The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson]]''. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1886). ''Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle''. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
* ''Thomas Carlyle's Counsels to a Literary Aspirant: A Hitherto Unpublished Letter of 1842 and What Came of Them'' (1886). Edinburgh: [[James Thin]], South Bridge.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1887). ''Reminiscences''. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1887). ''Correspondence Between Goethe and Carlyle''. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1888). ''Letters of Thomas Carlyle''. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
* ''Thomas Carlyle on the Repeal of the Union'' (1889). London: Field & Tuer, the [[Leadenhall Press]].
* Newberry, Percy, ed. (1892). ''Rescued Essays of Thomas Carlyle''. The Leadenhall Press.
* ''Last Words of Thomas Carlyle'' (1892). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
* Karkaria, R. P., ed. (1892). ''Lectures on the History of Literature''. London: Curwen, Kane & Co.
* [[Joseph Reay Greene|Greene, J. Reay]], ed. (1892). ''Lectures on the History of Literature''. London: Ellis and Elvey.
* Carlyle, Alexander, ed. (1898). ''Historical Sketches of Notable Persons and Events in the Reigns of James I and Charles I''. London: Chapman and Hall Limited.
* Norton, Charles Eliot, ed. (1898). ''Two Note Books of Thomas Carlyle''. New York: [[The Grolier Club]].
* Copeland, Charles Townsend, ed. (1899). ''Letters of Thomas Carlyle to His Youngest Sister''. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
* Jones, Samuel Arthur, ed. (1903). ''Collecteana''. Canton, Pennsylvania: The Kirgate Press.
* Carlyle, Alexander, ed. (1904). ''New Letters of Thomas Carlyle''. London: The Bodley Head.
* {{Cite book |title=The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh |others= 2 vols|publisher=The Bodley Head | year=1909 |editor-last=Carlyle |editor-first=Alexander |location=London |ref={{harvid|LL}}.}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |date=1922 |title=Notes of a Three-Days' Tour to the Netherlands |url=https://archive.org/details/cornhillmagazin126londuoft/page/626/mode/2up |magazine=Cornhill Magazine |volume=53 |pages=626–640 |ref=none}}
* Carlyle, Alexander, ed. (1923). ''Letters of Thomas Carlyle to John Stuart Mill, John Sterling and Robert Browning''. London: T. Fisher Unwin L<small>TD</small>.
* Brooks, Richard Albert Edward, ed. (1940). ''Journey to Germany, Autumn 1858''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Graham Jr., John, ed. (1950). ''Letters of Thomas Carlyle to William Graham''. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
* Shine, Hill, ed. (1951). ''Carlyle's Unfinished History of German Literature''. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
* Bliss, Trudy, ed. (1953). ''Letters to His Wife''. London: [[Victor Gollancz Ltd]].
* {{Cite journal |last=King |first=Marjorie P. |date=1954 |title="Illudo Chartis": An Initial Study in Carlyle's Mode of Composition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3718901 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=164–175 |doi=10.2307/3718901 |jstor=3718901 |issn=0026-7937|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Baumgarten |first=Murray |date=1968 |title=Carlyle and "Spiritual Optics" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3825228 |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=503–522 |jstor=3825228 |issn=0042-5222}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofthomasc0000carl/mode/2up |title=The Letters of Thomas Carlyle to His Brother Alexander: with Related Family Letters |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=1968 |editor-last=Marrs |editor-first=Edwin W. Jr. |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/tworeminiscences0000club |title=Two Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1974 |editor-last=Clubbe |editor-first=John |location=Durham, N.C. |isbn=978-0822303077 |ref={{harvid|TR}} |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Fielding |first=K.J. |date=1979 |title= Unpublished Manuscripts – I: Carlyle Among the Cannibals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945570 |journal=Carlyle Newsletter |issue=1 |pages=22–28 |jstor=44945570 |issn=0269-8226}}
* Henderson, Heather, ed. (1979). ''Wooden-Headed Publishers and Locust-Swarms of Authors''. University of Edinburgh.
* Campbell, Ian, ed. (1980). ''Thomas and Jane: Selected Letters from the Edinburgh University Library Collection''. Edinburgh.
* {{Cite journal |last=Fielding |first=K.J. |date=1980 |title= Unpublished Manuscripts – II: Carlyle's Scenario for 'Cromwell' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945576 |journal=Carlyle Newsletter |issue=2 |pages=6–13 |jstor=44945576 |issn=0269-8226}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Kaplan |first=Fred |date=1980 |title='Phallus-Worship' (1848): Unpublished Manuscripts – III: A Response to the Revolution of 1848 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945578 |journal=Carlyle Newsletter |issue=2 |pages=19–23 |jstor=44945578 |issn=0269-8226}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |date=1981 |title=The Guises |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3827058 |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=13–80 |jstor=3827058 |issn=0042-5222}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Trela |first=D. J. |date=1984 |title= Carlyle and the Beautiful People: An Unpublished Manuscript |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44937838 |journal=Carlyle Newsletter |issue=5 |pages=36–41 |jstor=44937838 |issn=0269-8226}}
* Tarr, Rodger L.; McClelland, Fleming, eds. (1986). ''The Collected Poems of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle''. Greenwood, Florida: The Penkevill Publishing Company.
* {{Cite journal |last=Fielding |first=K. J. |date=1991 |title=Carlyle Writes Local History: 'Dumfries-Shire Three Hundred Years Ago' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945533 |journal=Carlyle Annual |issue=12 |pages=3–7 |jstor=44945533 |issn=1050-3099}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Fielding |first1=K. J. |last2=Neuberg |first2=J. |date=1992 |title=New Notes for 'The Letters': I. Carlyle's Sketch of Joseph Neuberg II. 'Leave it Alone; Time Will Mend It' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44945549 |journal=Carlyle Annual |issue=13 |pages=3–15 |jstor=44945549 |issn=1050-3099}}
* {{Cite journal |last=de L. Ryals |first=Clyde |date=1995 |title=Thomas Carlyle on the Mormons: An Unpublished Essay |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946088 |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |issue=15 |pages=49–54 |jstor=44946088 |issn=1074-2670}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Ian |date=1 January 1996 |title=Peter Lithgow: New Fiction by Thomas Carlyle |url=https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol29/iss1/3 |journal=Studies in Scottish Literature |volume=29 |issue=1 |issn=0039-3770}}
* [[Tom Hubbard|Hubbard, Tom]] (2005), "Carlyle, France and Germany in 1870", in Hubbard, Tom (2022), ''Invitation to the Voyage: Scotland, Europe and Literature'', Rymour, pp.&nbsp;44–46, {{isbn|978-1739596002}}

==== Scholarly editions ====
* {{Cite book |last= |first= |title=Past and Present |publisher=New York University Press |year=2000 |isbn= |editor-last=Altick |editor-first=Richard D. |editor-link=Richard Altick |edition=Reprint |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1982 |isbn= |editor-last=Cate |editor-first=George Allen |location=Stanford, California}}
* {{Cite book |last= |first= |title=Reminiscences |publisher=Kennedy & Boyd |year=2009 |editor-last=Fielding |editor-first=Kenneth J. |edition=Reprint |location=Glasgow |ref={{harvid|Reminiscences}} |editor-last2=Campbell |editor-first2=Ian}}
* {{Cite book |last= |first= |title=Carlyle's Latter-Day Pamphlets |publisher=Canadian Federation for the Humanities |year=1983 |editor-last=Goldberg |editor-first=M. K. |editor-last2=Seigel |editor-first2=J. P.}}
* {{Cite book |title=Sartor Resartus |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |editor-last=McSweenery |editor-first=Kerry |series=Oxford World's Classics |location=Oxford |editor-last2=Sabor |editor-first2=Peter}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=1970–2022 |editor-last=Sanders |editor-first=Charles Richard |location=[[Durham, North Carolina]] |ref={{harvid|Letters}} |editor2-last=Fielding |editor2-first=Kenneth J. |editor3-last=Ryals |editor3-first=Clyde de L. |editor4-last=Campbell |editor4-first=Ian |editor5-last=Christianson |editor5-first=Aileen |editor6-last=Clubbe |editor6-first=John |editor7-last=McIntosh |editor7-first=Sheila |editor8-last=Smith |editor8-first=Hilary |editor9-last=Sorensen |editor9-first=David|last=|first=|last2=|first2=}}
** {{Cite web |date= |editor-last=Kinser |editor-first=Brent E. |title=The Carlyle Letters Online: A Victorian Cultural Reference |url=https://carlyleletters.dukeupress.edu/home |website= |ref={{harvid|CLO}}}}
* {{Cite book |title=[[The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle]] |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1964 |editor-last=Slater |editor-first=Joseph |location=New York and London}}
* {{Cite book |title=Past and Present |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0198841081 |editor-last=Sorensen |editor-first=David R. |series=Oxford World's Classics |location=Oxford |editor-last2=Kinser |editor-first2=Brent E.}}
* {{Cite book |title=The French Revolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2019 |editor-last=Sorensen |editor-first=David R. |series=Oxford World's Classics |location=Oxford |editor-last2=Kinser |editor-first2=Brent E. |editor-last3=Engel |editor-first3=Mark}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Norman and Charlotte Strouse Edition of the Writings of Thomas Carlyle|others=8 vols |publisher=University of California Press |year=1993–2024 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |ref={{harvid|Strouse}}}}

=== Memoirs, etc. ===
* {{Cite book |last=Allingham |first=William |title=William Allingham's Diary 1847–1889 |publisher=Centaur Press |year=1907 |isbn= |edition=Paperback |location=London |publication-date=2000 |ref={{harvid|Allingham}} |author-link=William Allingham}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=William |date=1 January 1976 |title=Herbert Spencer's unpublished reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle: The 'Perfect owl of minerva for knowledge' on a 'Poet without music' |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01513592 |journal=Neophilologus |language=en |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=145–152 |doi=10.1007/BF01513592 |s2cid=161087774 |issn=1572-8668|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite book |last=Blunt |first=Reginald |url=https://archive.org/details/carlyleschelseah00blunuoft/mode/2up |title=The Carlyles' Chelsea Home, being some account of No. 5, Cheyne Row |publisher=[[George Bell and Sons]] |year=1895 |location=York Street, [[Covent Garden]], London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Mary |title=Her Book |publisher=John Murray |year=1902 |editor-last=Boyle |editor-first=Sir Courtenay |location=London |pages=267–268 |chapter=Carlyle |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/maryboyleherbook00boyl/page/n317/mode/2up}}
* {{Cite book |last=Conway |first=Moncure D. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001417567 |title=Thomas Carlyle |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |year=1881 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Sir Charles Gavan |title=Conversations with Carlyle |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1892 |location=New York |author-link=Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Espinasse |first=Francis |title=Literary Recollections and Sketches |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |year=1893 |location=London |author-link=Francis Espinasse}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Caroline |url=https://archive.org/details/memoriesoldfrie00pymgoog/mode/2up |title=Memories of Old Friends: Being Extracts from the Journals and Letters of Caroline Fox of Penjerrick, Cornwall, from 1835 to 1871 |publisher=Smith, Elder & Co. |year=1883 |editor-last=Pym |editor-first=Horace N. |location=London |author-link=Caroline Fox}}
* {{Cite book |last=Higginson |first=Thomas Wentworth |title=Carlyle's Laugh, and Other Surprises |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=1909 |location=Boston and New York |pages=1–12 |chapter=Carlyle's Laugh |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/carlyleslaughan01higggoog/page/n16/mode/2up}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Knighton |first=William |date=1881 |title=Conversations with Carlyle. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078140640&view=1up&seq=974&skin=2021 |journal=Contemporary Review |issue=39 |pages=904–920}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Larkin |first=Henry |date=1881 |title=Carlyle, and Mrs. Carlyle: A Ten-Years' Reminiscence. |url=https://archive.org/details/britishquarterl04unkngoog/page/28/mode/2up |journal=The British Quarterly Review |issue=74 |pages=84–64}}
* {{Cite book |last=Masson |first=David |title=Carlyle Personally and in His Writings |year=1885}}
* [[Charles Eliot Norton|Norton, Charles Eliot]] (1886). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah6csw;view=1up;seq=11 "Recollections of Carlyle"]. ''The New Princeton Review''. '''2''' (4): 1–19.
* {{Cite book |last=Tyndall |first=John |title=New Fragments |publisher=Appleton |year=1890 |location=New York |publication-date=1892 |pages=347–391 |chapter=Personal Recollections of Thomas Carlyle |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newfragments00tyndrich/page/346/mode/2up}}
* {{Cite book |last=Symington |first=Andrew J. |title=Some Personal Reminiscences of Carlyle |year=1886}}
* [[The Westminster Gazette]]. ''The Homes and Haunts of Thomas Carlyle'', 1895.

=== Biographies ===
* {{Cite book |title=The Everyman Encyclopædia |title-link=Everyman's Encyclopaedia |publisher=J. M. Dent & Sons, L<small>TD</small>. |year=1913–1914 |editor-last=Boyle |editor-first=Andrew |editor-link=Andrew Boyle (editor) |volume=Three |location=London |pages=325–327 |chapter=Carlyle, Thomas |series=Everyman's library Reference |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063714342&view=1up&seq=350&skin=2021}}
* {{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Ian |title=Thomas Carlyle |publisher=Kennedy & Boyd |year=1974 |isbn= |edition=2nd Revised |location=Glasgow, Scotland |publication-date=24 June 2011}}
* {{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Ian |title=Dictionary of Literary Biography |publisher=Gale |year=1987 |chapter=Thomas Carlyle |chapter-url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Lisle/dial/carlyle.html |archive-date=24 October 2019 |access-date=30 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024180131/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/lisle/dial/carlyle.html |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Thomas A. |title=Thomas Carlyle |year=1882 |language=German}}
* {{Cite book |last=Froude |first=James Anthony |title=Thomas Carlyle |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |others=4 vols. |year=1882–1884 |location=London |ref={{harvid|Froude}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Garnett |first=Richard |title=Life of Thomas Carlyle |year=1887 |author-link=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Heffer |first=Simon |title=Moral Desperado: A Life of Thomas Carlyle |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=1996 |isbn= |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Fred |title=Thomas Carlyle: A Biography |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1983 |location=Ithaca |author-link=Fred Kaplan (biographer)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Morrow |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9d66JHfbMMC |title=Thomas Carlyle |publisher=Hambledon Continuum |year=2006 |location=New York |isbn=978-1852855444 |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Neff |first=Emery |title=Carlyle |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |year=1932 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nichol |first=John |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9784/pg9784.html |title=Thomas Carlyle |year=1904 |series= |author-link=John Nichol (biographer)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Bliss |url=https://archive.org/details/thomascarlylehow00perr/mode/2up |title=Thomas Carlyle: How to Know Him |publisher=The Bobbs-Merrill Company |year=1915 |location=Indianapolis}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shepherd |first=Richard Herne |title=Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Carlyle |year=1881 |author-link=Richard Herne Shepherd}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shine |first=Hill |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106005379141 |title=Carlyle's Early Reading, to 1834 |publisher=University of Kentucky Libraries |year=1953 |series=Occasional Contributions |volume=57 |location=Lexington |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sloan |first=J. M. |title=The Carlyle Country |publisher=The Grimsay Press |year=1904 |isbn= |editor-last=Hollern |editor-first=Mary |edition=2nd |location=Sheffield, England |publication-date=20 May 2010}}
* {{cite DNB |wstitle= Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) |volume= 09 |last= Stephen |first= Leslie |author-link= Leslie Stephen |pages= 111–127 |short= 1}}
* [[Julian Symons|Symons, Julian]] (1952). ''Thomas Carlyle: The Life and Ideas of a Prophet''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* {{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=David Alec |title=Carlyle |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., L<small>TD</small>. |others=6 vols. |year=1923–1934 |location=London |ref={{harvid|Wilson}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wylie |first=William Howie |title=Thomas Carlyle, the Man and His Books |year=1881 |location=London |author-link=William Howie Wylie}}

=== Secondary sources ===
* {{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FtDxyogkHhMC |title=Victorian Keats and Romantic Carlyle: The Fusions and Confusions of Literary Periods |publisher=Rodopi |year=1999 |editor-last=Barfoot |editor-first=C. C. |location=Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA |isbn=9042005785|url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Birrell |first=Augustine |title=Obiter Dicta |publisher=Chas. Scribner's Sons |year=1885 |location=New York |chapter=Carlyle |author-link=Augustine Birrell |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7299/7299-h/7299-h.htm#link2H_4_0002}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Bishirjian |first=Richard J. |date=1976 |title=Carlyle's Political Religion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2128963 |journal=[[The Journal of Politics]] |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=95–113 |doi=10.2307/2128963 |jstor=2128963 |s2cid=153527096 |url-access=registration |via=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Campell |first=Ian |url=https://archive.org/details/victorianprosewr55nari/mode/2up |title=Victorian Prose Writers Before 1867 |publisher=Gale |year=1987 |editor-last=Thesing |editor-first=William B. |series=Dictionary of Literary Biography |volume=55 |location=Detroit |pages=46–64 |chapter=Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) |isbn=978-0810317338 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/victorianprosewr55nari/page/46/mode/2up |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandler |first=Alice |url=https://archive.org/details/dreamofordermedi0000chan |title=A Dream of Order: The Medieval Ideal in Nineteenth-Century English Literature |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=1970 |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0803207042 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/carlylehiscontem00rd19/mode/2up |title=Carlyle and His Contemporaries: Essays in Honor of Charles Richard Sanders |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=1976 |isbn= 978-0822303404|editor-last=Clubbe |editor-first=John |location=Durham, North Carolina |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cole |first=J. A. |url=https://archive.org/details/lordhawhawwillia0000cole/mode/2up |title=Lord Haw-Haw: The Full Story of William Joyce |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1964 |location=London |isbn=978-0571148608 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Nvdx-4-CzoC |title=The Carlyle Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0838637920|editor-last=Cumming |editor-first=Mark |location=Madison and Teaneck, NJ |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009319214 |title=Thomas Carlyle 1981: Papers Given at the International Thomas Carlyle Centenary Symposium |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Lang]] |year=1983 |editor-last=Drescher |editor-first=Horst W. |series=Scottish Studies |location=Frankfurt am Main |isbn=978-3820473278 |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dyer |first=Isaac Watson |url=https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofth00dyer/mode/2up |title=A Bibliography of Thomas Carlyle's Writings and Ana |publisher=Burt Franklin |year=1928 |location=New York |publication-date=1968 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/carlylepastprese0000unse/mode/2up |title=Carlyle Past and Present: A Collection of New Essays |publisher=Vision Press |year=1976 |isbn= 978-0854783731|editor-last=Fielding |editor-first=K. J. |editor2-last=Tarr |editor2-first=Rodger L. |url-access=registration}}
* Harrold, Charles Frederick (1934). ''Carlyle and German Thought: 1819–1834''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* {{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Holbrook |title=Dreamers of Dreams: The Rise and Fall of 19th Century Idealism |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Company |year=1948 |location=New York |author-link=Holbrook Jackson}}
* {{Cite book |last=Jessop |first=Ralph |title=Carlyle and Scottish Thought |publisher=Macmillan Press |year=1997 |isbn=}}
* {{Cite book |last=Joyce |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/WilliamJoyceTwilightOverEngland1940-Scan-regularised/mode/2up |title=Twilight Over England |publisher=Internationaler Verlag |year=1940 |location=Berlin}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHCoMxt2hCAC |title=Thomas Carlyle Resartus: Reappraising Carlyle's Contribution to the Philosophy of History, Political Theory, and Cultural Criticism |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0838642238|editor-last=Kerry |editor-first=Paul E. |location=Madison and Teaneck, NJ |editor2-last=Hill |editor2-first=Marylu |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uF5dDwAAQBAJ |title=Thomas Carlyle and the Idea of Influence |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1683930662|editor-last=Kerry |editor-first=Paul E. |location=Madison and Teaneck, NJ |editor2-last=Pionke |editor2-first=Albert D. |editor3-last=Dent |editor3-first=Megan |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=LaValley |first=Albert J. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300006766/mode/2up |title=Carlyle and the Idea of the Modern: Studies in Carlyle's Prophetic Literature and Its Relation to Blake, Nietzsche, Marx, and Others |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1968 |isbn= 978-0300006766|location=New Haven and London |lccn= |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lea |first=F. A. |title=Carlyle: Prophet of To-day |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |series=Routledge Library Editions: Social and Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century |volume=2 |doi=10.4324/9781315563640 |isbn=978-1315563640 |orig-date=1943}}
* {{Cite thesis |last=McCollum |first=Jonathon C. |date=20 July 2007 |title=Thomas Carlyle, Fascism, and Frederick: From Victorian Prophet to Fascist Ideologue |type=MA thesis |publisher=Brigham Young University |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1439 |hdl=1877/etd2044}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Mendilow |first=Jonathan |date=1983 |title=''The Neglected'' (I): Carlyle's Political Philosophy: Towards a Theory of Catch-All Extremism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44483466 |journal=[[Government and Opposition]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=68–87 |doi=10.1111/j.1477-7053.1983.tb00341.x |jstor=44483466 |s2cid=145617742 |url-access=registration |via=}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Mendilow |first=Jonathan |date=1984 |title=Carlyle, Marx & the ILP: Alternative Routes to Socialism |url= |journal=Polity |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=225–247 |doi=10.2307/3234506 |jstor=3234506|s2cid=147550498 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Moldbug |first=Mencius |title=Moldbug on Carlyle |date=5 April 2016 |publisher=[[Unqualified Reservations]] |asin=B01DVJCCBQ}}
* {{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Carlisle |title=The English Romantic Poets & Essayists: A Review of Research and Criticism |publisher=New York University Press |year=1957 |editor-last=Houtchens |editor-first=Carolyn Washburn |edition=Revised |location=New York |publication-date=1966 |chapter=Thomas Carlyle |editor2-last=Houtchens |editor2-first=Lawrence Huston |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/englishromanticp00hout/page/332/mode/2up}}
* {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Edward |title=The Victorian Christian Socialists |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |location=Cambridge}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pierson |first=Stanley |url=https://archive.org/details/britishsocialist0000pier_a3b4/mode/2up |title=British Socialists: The Journey from Fantasy to Politics |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1979 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0674082823 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Plotz |first=John |date=2000 |title=Crowd Power: Chartism, Carlyle, and the Victorian Public Sphere |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2902894 |journal=[[Representations]] |volume=70 |issue=70 |pages=87–114 |doi=10.2307/2902894 |jstor=2902894 |url-access=registration |via=}}
* Rosenberg, John D. (1985). ''Carlyle and the Burden of History''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
* Rosenberg, Philip (1974). ''The Seventh Hero: Thomas Carlyle and the Theory of Radical Activism''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
* {{Cite book |last=Sanders |first=Charles Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/carlylesfriendsh00sand/mode/2up |title=Carlyle's Friendships and Other Studies |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1977 |location=Durham, N.C. |isbn=978-0822303893 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/thomascarlylecri0000seig |title=Thomas Carlyle: The Critical Heritage |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |year=1971 |editor-last=Seigel |editor-first=Jules Paul |series=The Critical Heritage Series |location=London |isbn=978-0710070906 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shepherd |first=Richard Herne |url=https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofca00shepuoft/mode/2up |title=The Bibliography of Carlyle |publisher=[[Elliot Stock]] |year=1881 |location=London |ref={{harvid|Shepherd Bibliography}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shine |first=Hill |url=http://archive.org/details/carlylesaintsimo0000shin |title=Carlyle and the Saint-Simonians; the concept of historical periodicity. |date=1971 |publisher=Octagon Books |isbn=978-0374973605 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Sorensen |first=David R. |date=1 March 2009 |title='Natural Supernaturalism': Carlyle's Redemption of the Past in The French Revolution |journal=Revue LISA/LISA e-journal. Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone – Literature, History of Ideas, Images and Societies of the English-speaking World |language=en |volume=VII|issue=3 |pages=442–451 |doi=10.4000/lisa.132 |issn=1762-6153|doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Sorensen |first=David R. |date=2012 |title='The Great Pioneer of National Socialist Philosophy?': Carlyle and Twentieth-Century Totalitarianism |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/studies_in_the_literary_imagination/v045/45.1.sorensen.html |journal=Studies in the Literary Imagination |language=en |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=43–66 |doi=10.1353/sli.2012.0000 |s2cid=153751576 |issn=2165-2678|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite web |last1=Sorensen |first1=David |last2=Kinser |first2=Brent E. |date=11 January 2018 |title=Thomas Carlyle |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0037.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199799558-0037}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tarr |first=Rodger L. |url=https://archive.org/details/thomascarlylebib0000tarr |title=Thomas Carlyle: A Bibliography of English Language Criticism, 1824–1974 |publisher=[[University Press of Virginia]] |year=1976 |location=Charlottesville |isbn=978-0813906959 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tarr |first=Rodger L. |url=https://archive.org/details/thomascarlyledes0000tarr/mode/2up |title=Thomas Carlyle: A Descriptive Bibliography |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=1989 |series=Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography |location=Pittsburgh |isbn=978-0822936077 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tennyson |first=G. B. |url=https://archive.org/details/sartorcalledresa0000tenn/mode/2up |title=Sartor Called Resartus: The Genesis, Structure, and Style of Thomas Carlyle's First Major Work |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1965 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |lccn=65017162 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tennyson |first=G. B. |url=https://archive.org/details/victorianprose00davi/mode/2up |title=Victorian Prose: A Guide to Research |publisher=The Modern Language Association of America |year=1973 |isbn= 978-0873522502|editor-last=DeLaura |editor-first=David J. |location=New York |pages=33–104 |chapter=Thomas Carlyle |lccn= |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106014525080 |title=The Critical Response to Thomas Carlyle's Major Works |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1997 |editor-last=Trela |editor-first=D. J. |series=Critical Responses in Arts and Letters |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=978-0313291074 |editor2-last=Tarr |editor2-first=Rodger L. |url-access=limited}}
* Vanden Bossche, Chris R. (1991). ''[https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/carlyle/vandenbossche/preface.html Carlyle and the Search for Authority]''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
* {{Cite book |last=Vida |first=Elizabeth M. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctvfrxchd |title=Romantic Affinities: German Authors and Carlyle; A Study in the History of Ideas |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1993 |series=Heritage |jstor=10.3138/j.ctvfrxchd |isbn=978-1487573270 |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vijn |first=J. P. |url=http://carlyle-jung-and-modern-man.com/pdf/Carlyle_Jung_and_Modern_Man.pdf |title=Carlyle, Jung, and Modern Man: Jungian Concepts as Key to Carlyle's Mind |publisher=H. Brinkman-Vijn |year=2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213153607/http://carlyle-jung-and-modern-man.com/pdf/Carlyle_Jung_and_Modern_Man.pdf |archive-date=13 December 2022}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wellek |first=René |url=http://archive.org/details/confrontationsst00well |title=Confrontations: studies in the intellectual and literary relations between Germany, England, and the United States during the nineteenth century |date=1965 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |author-link=René Wellek}}
* {{Cite book |last=Young |first=Louise Merwin |url=http://archive.org/details/thomascarlyleart0000youn |title=Thomas Carlyle and the Art of History |date=1971 |publisher=Octagon Books |isbn=978-0374988418 |location=New York}}

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
<!--READ ME!! PLEASE DO NOT JUST ADD NEW NOTES AT THE BOTTOM. See the instructions above on ordering. -->

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons}}
* [https://www.jstor.org/journal/carlstudannu ''Carlyle Studies Annual''] on [[JSTOR]]
* [https://www.ucpress.edu/series/sewtc/the-norman-and-charlotte-strouse-edition-of-the-writings-of-thomas-carlyle The Norman and Charlotte Strouse Edition of the Writings of Thomas Carlyle]
* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-collected-letters-of-thomas-and-jane-welsh-carlyle ''The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle'']
* [https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/research/current/carlyle-letters/carlyle-society The Carlyle Society of Edinburgh]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130718072402/http://thomascarlyle.org/ The Ecclefechan Carlyle Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091108115057/http://www.thomascarlyle.eu/ Thomas & Jane Carlyle's Craigenputtock] the official site
* {{NPG name}}

=== Electronic editions ===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-carlyle}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=523| name=Thomas Carlyle}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Carlyle}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4602}}
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1083 Poems by Thomas Carlyle] at PoetryFoundation.org
* [https://carlyleletters.dukeupress.edu/home ''The Carlyle Letters Online'']
* ''[[The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily]]'', [http://wn.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/GoetheJW/GreenSnake.html Thomas Carlyle's translation (1832) from the German of Goethe's ''Märchen or Das Märchen'']

=== Archival material ===
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* A guide to the [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.carlyle|Thomas Carlyle Collection]] at the [http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/index.html Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]
* [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/3/resources/422 Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle Photographs] at the [[Mortimer Rare Book Collection]], Smith College Special Collections

{{S-start}}
{{S-aca}}
{{succession box |
title=[[Rector of the University of Edinburgh]] |
before=[[William Ewart Gladstone]] |
years=1865–1868 |
after=[[James Moncreiff, 1st Baron Moncreiff|James Moncreiff]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Thomas Carlyle|state=expanded}}
{{Navboxes
|title=Articles related to Thomas Carlyle
|list1=
{{Continental philosophy}}
{{Philosophy of religion}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Political philosophy}}
{{Critique of political economy}}
{{Romanticism}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlyle, Thomas}}
[[Category:Thomas Carlyle| ]]
[[Category:1795 births]]
[[Category:1881 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish biographers]]
[[Category:19th-century British essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish historians]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish translators]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:Scottish male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish philosophers]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British anti-communists]]
[[Category:Conservatism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Critics of Freemasonry]]
[[Category:Critics of political economy]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Historians of the French Revolution]]
[[Category:British lecturers]]
[[Category:British white supremacists]]
[[Category:People associated with the National Portrait Gallery]]
[[Category:People educated at Annan Academy]]
[[Category:People from Dumfries and Galloway]]
[[Category:People of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Scottish proslavery activists]]
[[Category:Racism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Right-wing politics in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Romantic critics of political economy]]
[[Category:Scottish biographers]]
[[Category:Scottish essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish mathematicians]]
[[Category:Scottish literary critics]]
[[Category:Scottish monarchists]]
[[Category:Scottish satirists]]
[[Category:Scottish white nationalists]]
[[Category:Sexism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]
[[Category:Writers of the Romantic era]]
[[Category:Scottish encyclopedists]]