Thomas And Jane Carlyle

Oct 17, 2024 11:21 AM

Author:Rosemary Ashton

They were the most remarkable couple in London: the great sage Carlyle, with his vehement prophecies, and his witty, sardonic wife Jane. It was a strong, close, mutually admiring yet often mutually antagonistic partnership, fascinating to all who observed it. The Carlyles lived at the heart of English life in mid-Victorian London, but both were outsiders, a largely self-educated Scottish pair who took a sometimes caustic look at the society they so influenced - Carlyle through his copious writings, and both through their network of acquaintances and correspondents. Carlyle's fame was confirmed by his Sartor Resartus of 1843, The French Revolution, his lectures on heroes and hero-worship and by his radical account of contemporary industrial Britain in Past and Present, 1843. Both husband and wife were great letter-writers, Carlyle commenting on the matters of the day, dashing off pen portraits of those he met and Jane with her brilliant stories and her sharp, dry humour. Yet despite her brilliance, Jane suffered, especially from Carlyle's infatuation with the lion-hunting Lady Ashburton, and the tensions in their marriage grew. The letters they wrote, both to each other and to others, make theirs the most well-documented marriage of the nineteenth century and give us an unequalled portrait of a famously unhappy marriage. This moving and vivid biography describes their relationship with each other, from their first meeting in 1821 to Jane's death in 1866, and also their relationship with the world outside. Rosemary Ashton's inimitable blend of rigorous scholarship, warm sensitivity and lively wit makes this not only a portrait of a marriage but a picture of a whole age, elegant, erudite and entertaining.

Reviews

A gripping account of the race to the South Pole, 1912 is a celebration of pioneering explorers and their awe-inspiring achievements. Turney brings the Antarctic adventure to life

—— Sir Ranulph Fiennes

1912 is a great achievement – an insightful, fascinating and rigorously researched page-turner. Even seasoned Antarctic enthusiasts will find something new here. Fluent throughout, the passages on Antarctic science are beautifully clear. It reveals much not only about the way our planet works, but the debt that scientists like Turney owe each of the six expeditions of a century ago

—— Gavin Francis, author of Empire Antarctica

As well as casting the Scott–Amundsen rivalry in a completely new light...Turney also unearths documents that appear to show a cover-up in the way the demise of Scott's Polar party was reported... It is perhaps for this single historical discovery that [Turney] will be best remembered

—— The Scotsman

[An] engaging treatment… The portraits are nuanced

—— Nature

Fascinating

—— Literary Review

In this highly informative and fitting account Chris Turney reminds us of the legacy left by the polar giants of the Edwardian age – not tracks in the snow heading South, but a body of scientific discovery, analysis and reports that opened up the continent for the first time and continues to inform scientists today

—— Henry Worsley

It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly above the run-of-the-mill true crime stories: with its false leads and twists, it sucks the reader in like the best fiction

—— The Scotsman

The shocking true tale, combined with prose you can't drag yourself away from, makes Midnight in Peking a work of non fiction as compulsive as any bestselling crime novel. It also brings justice at last for a young woman whose murder nearly went unsolved

—— Sunday Express

Terrific, engrossing ... a gruesome tale of a hitherto forgotten case, and of the sheer tenacity of a grieving father

—— Caroline Sanderson , The Bookseller

It wasn't all sweetness and light between Maggie and Ronnie, as this account of their difficult relationship shows

—— Summer reading pick from THe Sunday Times

Pankaj Mishra has produced a riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections. He follows the intellectual trail of this contested history with both intelligence and moral clarity. In the end we realise that what we are holding in our hands is not only a deeply entertaining and deeply humane book, but a balance sheet of the nature and mentality of colonisation

—— Hisham Matar

Highly readable and illuminating ... Mishra's analysis of Muslim reactions is particularly topical

—— David Goodall , Tablet

Enormously ambitious but thoroughly readable, this book is essential reading for everyone who is interested in the processes of change that have led to the emergence of today's Asia

—— Amitav Ghosh , Wall Street Journal

Sophisticated ... not so much polemic as cri de coeur, motivated by Mishra's keen sense of the world, East and West, hurtling towards its own destruction

—— Tehelka, New Delhi

Outstanding ... Mishra wears his scholarship lightly and weaves together the many strands of history into a gripping narrative ... The insights afforded by this book are too many to be enumerated ... Mishra performs a signal service to the future - by making us read the past in a fresh light

—— The Hindu, New Delhi

[Full of] complexity and nuance

—— Mail Today

Subtle, erudite and entertaining

—— Financial Express

Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia

—— Free Press Journal

A vital, nuanced argument ... prodigious

—— Mint

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