born Dec. 4, 1795, Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scot.
died Feb. 5, 1881, London, Eng.
Scottish historian and essayist.
The son of a mason, Carlyle was reared in a strict Calvinist household and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He moved to London in 1834. An energetic, irritable, fiercely independent idealist, he became a leading moral force in Victorian literature. His humorous essay "Sartor Resartus" (1836) is a fantastic hodgepodge of autobiography and German philosophy. The French Revolution , 3 vol. (1837), perhaps his greatest achievement, contains outstanding set pieces and character studies. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841) showed his reverence for strength, particularly when combined with the conviction of a God-given mission. He later published a study of Oliver Cromwell (1845) and a huge biography of Frederick the Great , 6 vol. (185865).
Carlyle, detail of an oil painting by G.F. Watts, 1877; in the National Portrait Gallery, London
By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London