THOMAS CARLYLE: A Biography

by Fred Kaplan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1983

A long, solid, conscientious life of the man who may (deservedly?) be the least read of the great Victorian authors, A century ago (1882-84) Carlyle's friend and disciple, James Anthony Froude, published a huge four-volume biography (including letters) that remains in some ways the definitive and in many ways the most artful one. But as a literary historian, Kaplan (Queens College, CUNY) has the advantage over Froude of better documentation and practically no personal bias; so his book must rate, along with Ian Campbell's Thomas Carlyle (1974), as the essential source for future students of ""the sage of Chelsea."" Unlike his tortured, convoluted, flamboyant subject, Kaplan writes with sober, sometimes pedestrian clarity as he tries--and manages rather well--to view Carlyle sympathetically from the inside out, while maintaining the necessary critical distance. And Kaplan wisely minimizes discussion of Carlyle's enormous oeuvre, thereby speeding up the narrative of a very busy 85 years, and dodging the old arguments over his inimitably rich (or is it eccentrically turgid?) and oracular (or is it incoherent?) style. The Carlyle Kaplan portrays is less the man an admirer once called the Rembrandt of English prose than ""the recluse, the friend, the monologuist, the complainer, the mourner, the neurotic, the charitable, the compassionate, the loyal, the loving, the dutiful son, the neglectful husband, the volatile arguer, the self-obsessed artist, the brilliant talker. . . ."" Kaplan deals judiciously with the tragicomic ironies (for such a domineering sexist) of Carlyle's apparently total impotence; with the turbulent and fascinating Jane Welsh Carlyle; with their endless ailments and hypochondrias, their bitter fights and absolute dependence on each other, etc. One may quarrel with Kaplan's final assessment that no-body before Carlyle had been so keenly aware that ""the strongest force within man is Nature, which is unconscious, mysterious, spontaneous"" (Rousseau? Wordsworth?); but along the way to that judgment Kaplan offers a steady stream of useful comments, from the relatively obvious one that Carlyle could produce nothing but autobiography (however disguised) to a fine analysis of the curious idealism and even rationality underlying some of the reactionary-sounding blasts from the later Carlyle, such as the notorious ""Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question."" Carlyle was a trying character with an idiosyncratic mind, so readers attuned to the peculiar genius of Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution will find Kaplan's account invaluable, while non-enthusiasts will at least acknowledge its sober, scholarly competence.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Cornell Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION