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by John B. Lamb "IamforaradicalinwardReform" (Thomas Carlyle to John Carlyle, Dec. 19, 1830) yMarch22,1831,whenasecondreadingoftheReformBillwas carriedintheHouseofCommons,ThomasCarlylewasalready wellunderwaywiththewritingofSartor Resartus.ByOctober8, whentheBillwasrejectedbytheHouseofLords,hehadbeeninLondonnearlytwomonthslookingforapublisher.whileCarlylebelieved that the book trade in general and Sartor in particular suffered becauseof"Reform-Billagitations,"henonethelessfeltthatSartorwasa "`wordspo[ken]inseason,'"confirmingtherebybothitspoliticaland propheticcharacter:"MypersuasionthatTeufkisinhisplaceandtime growsstrongerthemoreIseeofLondonanditsphilosophy:Doctrineof thePhoenix,ofNat. SupernaturalismandthewholeClothesPhilosophy ...isexactlywhatintelligentmenarewanting"(CL,5:410,327,354). IncontrastingSartorwiththe"characteroftheTimes,"Carlyletoldthe publisherjohnMurrayinSeptemberof1831"thatnow...werethebest seasonforemittingit"(CL,5:404). Indeed, Carlyle had suggested in july of 1831 that he viewed the questionofreform"throTeufel"(CL,5:297),testifyingtotherelationshipbetweenSartor Resartusandcontemporarypoliticsnotedbyjames AnthonyFroude:"`Sartor'wasindeedafree-flowingtorrent,theoutThe Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, ed. Clyde de L. Ryals and Kennethj.Fielding,32vols.(Durham:DukeUniversityPress,19702005),5:204.HereafterabbreviatedasCLandcitedinthetextbyvolumeandpagenumber. 259 ©2010TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress SartorResartus and the Politics of Bildung burstingofemotionswhichasyethadfoundnoescape.Thediscontent whichinalowershapewasrushingintoFrenchRevolutions,Reform Bills,EmancipationActs,SocialismandBristolRiotsandrickburning, had driven Carlyle into far deeper inquiries--inquiries into the how andwhyoftheseconvulsionsonthesurface."Froude'sintuitionthat personalemotionsandaninterestintheoriginsofcontemporarysocial andpoliticalunrestwerebroughttogetherinSartorisofmorethanbiographicalimport.Fortheintersectionofthepersonalandpoliticalthat Froude claims marks Carlyle's text is an important aspect of the late eighteenth-andearlynineteenth-centuryconceptofBildung,aconcept thatwouldplayanimportantroleinCarlyle'sresponsetoreformand radicalpoliticsinthe1830s.ToseeEnglishpoliticsintheageofreform "throTeufel"wastoviewitthroughthelensofanidealofself-formation thathadimportantideologicalramifications.ThequestionthatCarlyle puttohimselfinNovemberof1831--"willanyParliamentaryReform everreformme!"--suggeststheextenttowhichCarlylesawthequestionofreformashavingtodomorewiththeimprovementoftheindividualthanwiththeprogressofVictorianpartypolitics. T H E R E BE L L IO U S N E E D L E M A N InhisseminaleditionofSartor Resartus,G.F.Harroldspeculatesthat Carlylegotthetitleforhisfirstmajorworkfromawell-knownScottish song,butIbelievethatitisnottoofancifultosuggestthatitalsopoints elsewhere,thatthetitleSartor Resartusrefers,ifonlyobliquely,tothe manCarlyledubbed"therebelliousNeedleman,"ThomasPaine,whose worksremainedamainstayofBritishpopularradicalismfromthetime oftheFrenchRevolutionthroughoutthefirsthalfofthenineteenthcentury,particularlyduringthoseperiodsofradicalpoliticalmobilization, liketheoneprecedingthepassageofthefirstReformBill.widelycircuFroude,Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life,2vols.(NewYork, 1897),2:106. Two Note Books of Thomas Carlyle,ed.CharlesEliotNorton(Mamaroneck,NY:PaulP. Appel,1972),226. Seeappendix1,"OntheTitleofSartor Resartus,"inThomasCarlyle,Sartor Resartus, ed.Harrold(NewYork:TheOdysseyPress,1937),3012.Allfuturequotationsreferto thiseditionandarecitedinthetext. Carlylewasprobablyawareofthefactthatoftheeighty-eightarrestedforhightreasoninthewestofScotlandduringthe1820s,anumberhadbeenweavers,tailors,and cotton spinners. See Malcolm j. Thomas and Peter Holt, Threats of Revolution in Britain, 17891849(Hamden,CT:ArchonBooks,1977),77.In1820,CarlylecalledGlasgow"the landofRadicalism"(CL,1:252). John B. Lamb lated,theRights of ManandtheAge of Reasonwerethemostcelebrated textsofEnglishrepublicanism,andintheearlynineteenthcentury,they "underpinnedthehopesofultra-radicalsforreorientingpopularradicalism,forshiftingitscenterofgravitytowardanoutrightcommitment torevolutionaryrepublicanism."Regardlessofone'spoliticalpersuasion,fromthePeterlooMassacrein1812tothefirststirringsofChartismin1838,Paine,"therebelliousNeedleman,"wassynonymouswith the ideology and iconography
Studies in Philology – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Apr 11, 2010
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