Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) is a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.

He calls economics "the dismal science", writes articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.

Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle is expected to become a preacher by his parents, but while at the University of Edinburgh he loses his Christian faith.

Calvinist values, however, remain with him throughout his life.

His combination of a religious temperament with loss of faith in traditional Christianity make Carlyle's work appealing to many Victorians who are grappling with scientific and political changes that threaten the traditional social order.

He brings a trenchant style to his social and political criticism and a complex literary style to works such as The French Revolution: A History (1837).

Dickens uses Carlyle's work as a primary source for the events of the French Revolution in his novel A Tale of Two Cities.

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