In a
generation divided between the red cap of France and the coal-scuttle
bonnet of England Carlyle stands bareheaded under the stars. Along with
him stand Benjamin Disraeli, combining a genuine sympathy for the poor
with a most grotesque delight in the aristocracy; and John Henry Newman,
fierce against the Liberals, and yet the author of "Lead, kindly Light."
The book was handicapped more heavily by its own style than perhaps any
book that ever fought its way from neglect and vituperation to
idolatrous popularity. There is in it an immense amount of gag and
patter, much of which is brilliant, but so wayward and fantastic as to
give a sense of restlessness and perpetual noise. The very title is
provoking, and not less so is the explanation of it--the pretended
discovery of a German volume upon "Clothes, their origin and influence,"
published by Stillschweigen and Co., of Weissnichtwo, and written by
Diogenes Teufelsdroeckh. The puffs from the local newspaper, and the
correspondence with Hofrath "Grasshopper," in no wise lessen the odds
against such a work being taken seriously.
Again, as might be expected of a Professor of "Things in General," the
book is discursive to the point of bewilderment.
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