Thomas Carlyle's major work, Sartor Resartus (meaning 'The tailor re-tailored'), first published as a serial in 1833-34, purported to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (which translates as 'god-born devil-dung'), author of a tome entitled "Clothes: their Origin and Influence. Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881 was a Scottish essayist satirist and historian whose work was highly influential during the Victorian era. " Teufelsdröckh's Transcendentalist musings are mulled over by a skeptical English editor who also provides fragmentary biographical material on the philosopher. Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in Literature, Religion, Culture, and Philosophy that emerged in New England in the The work is, in part, a parody of Hegel, and of German Idealism more generally. German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
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Publication history, themes and critical reception
Carlyle had terrible trouble finding a publisher for Sartor, and thus a number of different publication dates are given. Project Gutenberg, for instance, gives the date as 1831, but that seems to be the date that Carlyle wrote it, not when it was published. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Fraser's Magazine serialised it in 1833-4 and the text was published as a volume in 1838, possibly because of the success of The French Revolution (published 1837). Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was a general and literary Journal, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics The French Revolution A History was written by the Scottish Essayist philosopher, and Historian Thomas Carlyle.
Sartor Resartus was intended to be a new kind of book: simultaneously factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. It ironically commented on its own formal structure, while forcing the reader to confront the problem of where 'truth' is to be found. In this respect it develops techniques used much earlier in Tristram Shandy, to which it refers. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman (or more briefly Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. The imaginary "Philosophy of Clothes" holds that meaning is to be derived from phenomena, continually shifting over history, as cultures reconstruct themselves in changing fashions, power-structures, and faith-systems. The book contains a very Fichtean conception of religious conversion: based not on the acceptance of God but on the absolute freedom of the will to reject evil, and to construct meaning. Johann Gottlieb Fichte ( May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religious identity or a change from one religious identity to another This has led some writers to see Sartor Resartus as an early Existentialist text. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence
Sartor Resartus was initially considered bizarre and incomprehensible by some, but had a limited success in America, where it was admired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, influencing the development of New England Transcendentalism, and by Herman Melville, whose Moby-Dick was strongly influenced by Carlyle. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in Literature, Religion, Culture, and Philosophy that emerged in New England in the Herman Melville (August 1 1819 &ndash September 28 1891 was an American novelist Short story writer Essayist and poet Moby-Dick is an 1851 Novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship
Characters and locales
Blumine
The siren who, Calypso-like, seduced Teufelsdroeckh at the commencement of his career, but who also helped him see that it is not in sentiment, however fine, that the soul's cravings can find satisfaction. Calypso ( Greek: Καλυψώ Kālupsō; English translation: "I will conceal" was a Nymph and a daughter of Atlas The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living
Dumbdrudge
Dumbdrudge is an imaginary village where the natives drudge away and say nothing about it, as villagers all over the world contentedly do. A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a Town or City.
Hofrath
Hofrath Heuschrecke (i. e. State-Councillor Grasshopper) is a loose, zigzag figure, a blind admirer of Teufelsdroeckh's, an incarnation of distraction distracted, and the only one who advises the editor and encourages him in his work; a victim to timidity and preyed on by an uncomfortable sense of mere physical cold, such as the majority of the state-counsellors of the day were.
Weissnichtwo
In the book, Weissnichtwo (weiß-nicht-wo, German for Know-not-where) is an imaginary European city, viewed as the focus, and as exhibiting the operation, of all the influences for good and evil of the time, described in terms which characterised city life in the first quarter of the 19th century; so universal appeared the spiritual forces at work in society at that time that it was impossible to say where they were and where they were not, and hence the name of the city, Know-not-where (cf. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Sir Walter Scott's Kennaquhair). Sir Walter Scott 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 &ndash 21 September 1832 was a prolific Scottish Historical novelist and Poet popular throughout Kennaquhair (literally "know-not-where" in old Lowland Scots) is an imaginary locality in Walter Scott 's novels The Monastery and
Trivia
- Auscultator is a name in the book, the hero as a man qualified for a profession, but as yet only expectant of employment in it.
- Dwight Eisenhower who kept this book with him from 1942 through 1945 while Commander of AEF noted, “It is a humble man who has read this masterpiece and hides it in his heart. ”
External links
- Sartor Resartus: the life and opinions of Herr Teufelsdrocke, available at Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
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