A satirical fictional biography of an invented German philosopher, Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, whose imagined Philosophy of Clothes treats every institution, church, state, aristocracy and the clothes on a person's back alike as an outward symbol clothing an inward spirit, so that reform means seeing through the symbol to what it clothes. Serialized in Fraser's Magazine in 1833 and 1834 before appearing as a book, first in Boston in 1836, where Ralph Waldo Emerson arranged its publication, and only in 1838 in Britain, it reworks Carlyle's own reading of German idealist philosophy, Goethe and Fichte above all, into a form modern critics classify as Menippean satire.
Facts
Classification
Original Language Composed, From (Year) Composed, From (Year) FAQs
Is the German professor in Sartor Resartus a real author?
No. The professor and his book on clothes are invented by Thomas Carlyle, who frames the work as an editor's report.
No. The book is framed as an English editor's account of a volume that has just arrived from Professor Teufelsdröckh of Weissnichtwo, a work on a Philosophy of Clothes, and the text proceeds through that volume and the biographical papers the editor calls the Paper-bags. Professor Teufelsdröckh and his book are inventions of the author, Thomas Carlyle, who wrote the whole work himself.
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Source Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1836)Thomas Carlyle
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Source Encyclopaedia Britannicatier 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Sartor Resartus
WikipediaLead
Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books is a novel by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, first serialised in Fraser's Magazine from November 1833 to August 1834.
Lead paragraph
Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books is a novel by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, first serialised in Fraser's Magazine from November 1833 to August 1834.
View the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.- Sartor Resartus entry
- In Genre: Satire
View the Source Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1836)
Thomas Carlyle, 1836
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