Reading for Pleasure: The author in person.

Abstract

Napoleon remarked of a colleague: "He lies too much, it is well to lie sometimes, mais toujours c'est trop"; Winston Churchill, when he left the Liberal Party in 1924 to return to the Con-servatives, declared: "Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat"; and Groucho Marx said of a safari in Africa: "We shot two bucks, but that was all the money we had." The distinctive identity and qualities of the individual initiating the message evoke a mental image with a pattern of association that arouses corresponding expectation. In like manner, the growth of biographical writings to a recognised literary species in recent decades reflects the public's appetite for personal record. The brief snatches I present here reflect but the merest glimmer from the Aladdin's cave of biography, which overflows with the riches of incident and the contending interpretations of the subject's inner self. Literary giants In part, Thomas Carlyle's lack of gratitude, jealousies, and trenchant criticisms may be attributed to his ailments. Insomnia, fits of depression, and lifelong dyspepsia were his lot. Self-centred, intolerant of his wife's ill health, he grumbled incessantly , full of self-pity yet possessed of a constitution of the strongest, permitting his survival to the age of 86. In discussion he rarely argued, he harangued. He dominated the times and imposed the role of the expert on the reading public and the prophet on society, a self-proclaimed Moses, who, says Clough, "led us into the wilderness and left us there." Excessive Teutonism and a biblical upbringing moulded his approach, as shown in Sartor Resartus (the tailor repatched) which includes autobiographical aspects of the Calvinistic severity and grinding poverty of early industrial Scotland as well as of his own spiritual crises. Yet he could inspire great friendships and display nobility of character. John Stuart Mill, to whom he had loaned the manuscript of his first volume of The French Revolution, passed it on to Mrs Taylor without consent; a servant used it to light the fire. Carlyle's forbearance was remarkable, especially as his original notes had been disposed of and he was faced with the immense task afresh. Contrasted with the elegant and artificial prose of former historical presentations , his vivid, dramatic, picturesque writing and his depiction of the central characters in the manner of the novelist established his fame. He upheld the precept that "man was born to work" …