I did read Carlyle’s French Revolution many years ago and loved it for its pungent prose and eccentricity of expression. In an attempt to rescue this one from the doldrums of hated student reads, I picked up the illustrated Canongate edition with an introduction from Alasdair Gray. Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd: Language is called the Garment of Thought: however, it should rather be, Language is the Flesh-Garment, the Body, of Thought. 2. Tristram trumps Teufelsdrock. It's. Thomas Carlyle —> Works —> Image and Symbol —>Leading Questions]. The Tailor Retailored. Having not read much else (anything else) from this period, I don't have a lot to compare it with, and it definitely warrants a second reading, but I'm aware that it's considered a forerunner of a lot of now-common trends including the idea of fictional non-fiction (or, dressed-up philosophy). He left without a degree, became a mathematical tutor at Annan Academy in 1814, and three years later abandoned all thoughts of entering the Kirk, having reached a theological position incompatible with its teachings. “Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they are thenceforth to rule. Carlyle's trope of the "tailor retailored" draws upon an eighteenth-century concept of linguistic style, prominently developed by Pope and Swift. Everything I read leads to adding something else to my list. Who is the tailor? Alas, the very definition of a syllabus chore whose charms still elude with age. A vile conceit in pompous words express'd, But, this is much more than a translation. sansculottes, reactionaries, tailors, women, dandies, bureaucrats, Sartor Resartus, which means "The Tailor Re-tailored" is ostensibly a book on "The Philosophy of Clothing" by a German author, Herr Diogenes Teufelsdrockh. The ridiculousness of a clown wearing "regal purple" is sometimes less apparent than "A vile conceit in pompous words express'd.". "Men are properly said to be clothed with Authority, clothed with Beauty, with Curses, and the like. At the center of this strange “novel” is our ability to understand truth. Looked into this the other day, and wow. Carlyle endows the trope that "Language is called the Garment of Thought" with a more substantial social materiality than did previous users of the analogy. I know. This contact was Carlyle's first experience of true intellectual companionship, and the two men became lifelong friends. From the age of five to nine he was at the village school; from nine to fourteen at Annan Grammar School. 4. It's not exactly unenjoyable, but it's not the highlight of your night. Sartor Resartus Book Summary and Study Guide. Fiction cavorts as fact through the pen of an unnamed Editor and one Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, then becomes non-fiction as Carlyle’s own transcendental philosophy takes form. That sure was a book. The central incident describes Teufelsdrockh's discovery of the Clothes Philosophy as a result of a mystical experience. ", Although it was pretty funny at times, "Sartor Resartus" mainly just made me zone out and forget what was happening every other 5 pages or so. On the other hand, clothes take on a "reality" because such symbolic tokens are the only metaphors that society has to work with. Expression is the dress of thought, and still On the other hand, all Emblematic things are properly Clothes, thought-woven or hand-woven: must not the Imagination weave Garments, visible Bodies, wherein the else invisible creations and inspirations of our Reason are, like Spirits, revealed, and first become all-powerful; the rather if, as we often see, the Hand too aid her, and (by wool Clothes or otherwise) reveal such even to the outward eye? 1. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The mother, too, was of the Scottish earth, and Thomas' education was begun at ho. Welcome back. Awe-inspiring. 6. Why is he not only a tailor, but a retailored tailor? Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do thou thyself but hold thy tongue for one day: on the morrow, how much clearer are thy purposes and duties; what wreck and rubbish have those mute workmen within thee swept away, when intrusive noises were shut out! Alas, a sudden conversion to the genius of this novel never came. 5. Utterly delirious and totally wonderful. What is the significance of Carlyle's mysticism (52-3, 87, 129, 149, 194)? was born in the village of Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, eldest child of James Carlyle, stonemason, and Margaret (Aitken) Carlyle. Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle My rating: 5 of 5 stars What does the Latin title of this novel mean? It gilds all objects, but it alters none. In the end, not only do we get the the translation of the original along with the editor's commentary but we also get a biography of Teufelsdrockh assembled from the strange and seemingly random contents of six sealed paper bags which the editor has come into possession of, and which he plans to deposit later at the British Museum. We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. We’d love your help. The extended metaphor of “spiritual journey” for “human progress” is wrought with its own unresolved contradictions, but Carlyle’s method is a model for the creative expression of an abstract idea. Clears, and improves whate'er it shines upon, I did read Carlyle’s French Revolution many years ago and loved it for its pungent prose and eccentricity of expression. Click on a plot link to find similar books. The book sort of reads like a conversation you have with a drunk girl, while waiting in line for the bathroom at a party: it starts of with some hot takes on today's society, continues on with the entire life story of the drunk girl (or German philosopher, I guess), and ends with just a whole bunch of philosophical ideas that don't quite make sense. Nay, if you consider it, what is Man himself, and his whole terrestrial Life, but an Emblem; a Clothing or visible Garment for that divine ME of his, cast hither, like a light-particle, down from Heaven? We're told that this is the English translation from the original German. By balancing form and theme, it interprets Hegel by way of Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven & Hell” to reveal truth as an imminent, rather than absolute, certainty that is reached by confronting known contradictions and overcoming the neutral detachment that follows. [ll. He remained there two years, was attracted by Margaret Gordon, a lady of good family (whose friends vetoed an engagement), and in October 1818 gave up schoolmastering and went to Edinburgh, where he took mathematical pupils and made some show of reading law. He had begun to learn German in Edinburgh, and had done much independent reading outside the regular curriculum.