Here you will find a perspective on the 19th century like no other, through the words of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. Browse over 10,000 of their collected letters by date, by recipient, by subject, and by volume. We invite you to explore a correspondence that features some of the most influential artistic, philosophic, and literary personalities of the day.

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Welcome to the Carlyle Letters Online

Duke University Press is proud to present this digital archive based on the Duke-Edinburgh edition of The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. To learn more about the history and development of both projects, please read The Online Project and The Printed Edition. If you would like background information on the Carlyles, you can learn more here.



Newly Discovered Letters

The Carlyle Letters Online is an ongoing project, and new letters will be added periodically. Register here to receive notifications of new content.

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And then as to “misery” and the other dark ground on which you love to see genius paint itself,—alas, consider whether misery is not ill health too; also whether good fortune is not worse to bear than bad; and on the whole whether the glorious serene Summer is not greater than the wildest hurricane,—as Light, the Naturalists say, is stronger a thousand times than Lightning.
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