Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Janet Welsh

Catalogue record

Notes

Thomas Carlyle was one of the leading prose writers, both in volume and influence, of the Victorian era. J.A. Froude, Carlyle's first biographer, said of him in his much acclaimed, through controversial biography "his mood was too uniformly like that of a man drawing a hearse". "The History of the French Revolution", on which Carlyle's early literary reputation was based, was first published in 1837, and was followed by "Chartism", "Past and Present" and "Cromwell". After the publication in 1851 of his friend John Stirling, Carlyle devoted himself entirely to his largest work, a study of Frederick the Great entitled "The History of Friedrich the Second", published between 1858 and 1865. In 1826 Carlyle married Jane Welsh. This collection consists of letters from Thomas Carlyle, written mainly between 1825 and 1870, letters to and about Carlyle and the correspondence of Jane Welsh. An index to the letters is contained on the reel. From the originals owned by the National Trust in Carlyle's House, Chelsea.