Thomas And Jane Carlyle

“Intelligent, witty, thoroughly engaging . . . the most fascinating biography I have read in years.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune She was one of the all-time great letter writers, according to Virginia Woolf, but as the wife of Victorian literary celebrity Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle has been much overlooked. In this “hugely satisfying” new biography (The Spectator), Kathy Chamberlain brings Jane out of her husband’s shadow, focusing on Carlyle as a remarkable woman and writer in her own right. Caught between her own literary aspirations and Victorian society’s oppression of women, Jane Welsh Carlyle hoped to move beyond domestic life and become a respected published writer. As she and her husband moved in exclusive London literary circles, mingling with noted authors, poets, and European revolutionaries, Carlyle created and reported to her correspondents on her rich, rewarding life in her Chelsea home—until her husband’s infatuation with a wealthy, imposing aristocratic society hostess threw her life into chaos. Through dedicated research and unparalleled access to Jane Welsh Carlyle’s private correspondence, Chamberlain presents an elegant portrait of an extraordinary woman. “Sparkles with the wit and intelligence of the subject herself . . . If you think, as I originally did, that you have no particular interest in the life of Jane Carlyle, read this—you will be captivated.” —Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lucy by the Sea “Compelling . . . illuminates the outwardly decorous but often inwardly tempestuous lives of Victorian women.” —The New Yorker “Chamberlain, Jane’s latest and incomparably best biographer . . . gives us, at last, a Jane Carlyle who seems thrillingly alive.” —Christian Science Monitor

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.

This new selection of the letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle presents a complete view of a remarkable Victorian woman, with a wide circle of friends, who enjoyed the company of distinguished thinkers, writers, politicians, feminists, eccentrics and radicals. This edition draws on many remarkable letters and papers not published before, in which she created a memorable epistolary voice - shrewd, vigorous, ironic, observant, humorous and passionate. Previous selections have often tamely followed the semi-mythical version of her life first given by Carlyle’s biographer, James Anthony Froude, showing her as the victimized angel in distress. This new selection gives a rounded picture of her complex character, showing her as a tormented yet forceful woman who was a strong personality in her own right. She now emerges as a self-conscious artist, adept at constructing images of herself that were designed to appeal to her particular correspondents. The account is written with close attention to Jane Carlyle's long-running jealousy of Lady Harriet Ashburton; and fresh letters include many to her mother and her vital response to her passionate lover or admirer Charlotte Cushman. Each letter is a tightly controlled performance, which justifies Thomas Carlyle’s belief that her letters equal and surpass whatever of best I know to exist in that kind.

This fascinating collection of Jane Carlyle's letters are arranged in sections corresponding to the main themes in her life. This is a book to read right through with riveted enjoyment. It is one of the most fascinating correspondences in the English language.

"The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle opens a window onto the lives of two of the Victorian world's most accomplished, perceptive, and unusual inhabitants. Scottish writer and historian Thomas Carlyle and his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle, attracted to them a circle of foreign exiles, radicals, feminists, revolutionaries, and major and minor writers from across Europe and the United States. The collection is regarded as one of the finest and most comprehensive literary archives of the nineteenth century" -- Provided by publisher's website.