Carlyle's _Essays_ and his _French Revolution_, upon which his
fame will chiefly rest, are issued in many editions. It would
be well if his longer works could be condensed into single
volumes by competent hands. A revised edition of his
_Frederick_ was issued in one short volume. For the facts of
Carlyle's life, the best book is his own _Reminiscences
issued_ in 1881 and edited by Froude, who was his literary
executor with the full power to publish or suppress. Froude
had so great an antipathy to what Carlyle himself called
"mealy-mouthed biography" that he erred on the side of extreme
frankness. In _Thomas Carlyle--The First Forty Tears of His
Life_, _Life in London_ and _Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle_,
Froude permitted the publication of many malicious comments by
Carlyle on his famous contemporaries. These and morbid
expressions of remorse by Carlyle over imaginary neglect of
his wife caused a great revulsion of public sentiment and the
fame of Carlyle was clouded for ten years. Finally, after much
acrimonious controversy, the truth prevailed and Carlyle came
into his own again.
Among the best books on Carlyle are Lowell's _Essays_, volume
2; David Masson, _Carlyle Personally and in His Writings_;
E.P. Whipple, _Essays and Reviews_; Emerson, _English Traits_;
Lowell, _My Study Windows_; Morley, _English Literature in the
Reign of Victoria_; Greg, _Literary and Social Judgments_;
Moncure Conway, _Carlyle_, and Henley, _Views and Reviews_.
Among magazine and review articles may be mentioned George
Eliot in WESTMINSTER REVIEW, volume 57; John Burroughs in
ATLANTIC MONTHLY, volume 51; Emerson in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE,
volume 22; Froude in NINETEENTH CENTURY, volume 10, and Leslie
Stephen in CORNHILL, volume 44.