Overview

In 1837 Thomas Carlyle published his work The French Revolution: A History and overnight became a celebrity. The work was filled with a passionate intensity, hitherto unknown in historical writing. In a politically-charged Europe, filled with fears and hopes of revolution, Carlyle's account of the motivations and urges that inspired the events in France became powerfully relevant. Carlyle's style emphasized this, continually pointing to the urgency of action - often using the present tense. For him, chaotic events demanded 'heroes' to take control over the competing forces erupting within society. In Carlyle's view only dynamic individuals could master events and direct these energies effectively. As soon as ideological formulas replaced heroes and human action, society became dehumanized. As Ruth Scurr shows in her masterly introduction and through the texts she has selected from Carlyle's masterpiece of historical writing, The French Revolution needs still to be read for its relevance and as one of the finest examples of English prose writing ever.

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Dr Ruth Scurr's introduction to Continuum's new edition of the history helps us to relive the weeping, praying and exhaustion that Carlyle experienced as he produced what Scurr calls one of the finest examples of English prose ever. -- Standpoint ... Scurr impressively sustains a sense of unbroken progression from the convening of the Estates General in 1789 to the death of Robespierre in 1794, even though her extracts range across three volumes. -- History House of Oxford

Dr Ruth Scurr's introduction to Continuum's new edition of the history helps us to relive the weeping, praying and exhaustion that Carlyle experienced as he produced what Scurr calls one of the finest examples of English prose ever.--Standpoint

Author Information

Dr Ruth Scurr is Director of Studies for Politics and International Affairs at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. She is also a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Cambridge. Her most celebrated book Fatal Purity - Robespierre and the French Revolution was published by Chatto and Windus in 2006. Dr Scurr writes regularly for The Times, TLS, Telegraph, Observer, The New York Review of Books and The New York Observer. Dr Ruth Scurr is Director of Studies for Politics and International Affairs at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. She is also a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Cambridge. Her most celebrated book Fatal Purity - Robespierre and the French Revolution was published by Chatto and Windus in 2006. Dr Scurr writes regularly for The Times, TLS, Telegraph, Observer, The New York Review of Books and The New York Observer.

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