On Heroes: The Annotated Carlyle

By Thomas Carlyle (Author), Edward Maxwell III (Contributor), Victor Van Brandt (Introduction)

On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History is Carlyle’s most striking and influential work, the key statement of Great Man history.

In some of the most dazzling English prose since Shakespeare, Carlyle explores how the hero manifests as god, prophet, poet, priest, writer, and king, offering vivid sketches of such great figures as Muhammed, Luther, Napoleon, and others. Praised by Thoreau as surpassing even Plutarch’s Lives, this book, in one bold stroke, challenges “trends and forces” histories such as Marx’s dialectical materialism. Carlyle’s hero is described as “a fiery mass of Life cast up from the great bosom of Nature herself. To kindle the world; the world’s Maker had ordered it so.”

Thomas Carlyle stands as one of the greatest writers in the English language and a towering figure of the Victorian age—an arch-reactionary while also a forward-thinking trailblazer.

The Annotated Carlyle Series

In this series, the editors of Imperium Press present Carlyle’s major works with extensive commentary. Every word of his kaleidoscopic writing, including all his obscure allusions and unique Carlylisms, is made accessible to the lay reader through comprehensive annotations.