Sartor Resartus is Thomas Carlyle's most enduring and influential work. First published in serial form in Fraser's Magazine in 1833-1834, it was discovered by the American Transcendentalists. Sponsored by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it was first printed as a book in Boston in 1836 and immediately became the inspiration for the Transcendental movement. The first London trade edition was published in 1838. By the 1840s, largely on the strength of Sartor Resartus, Carlyle became one of the leading literary figures in Britain.
Sartor Resartus became one of the important texts of nineteenth-century English literature, central to the Romantic movement and Victorian culture. At the time of Carlyle's death in 1881, more than 69,000 copies had been sold. The post-Victorian influence continued and extends to writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, Willa Cather and Ernest Hemingway.
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520209282
For a more detailed discussion of the novel on the novel, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sartor_Resartus
Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he explains that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "History is nothing but the biography of the Great Man".
A respected historian in his day, his 1837 book The French Revolution: A History was the inspiration for Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyle's 1836 novel Sartor Resartus is considered one of the finest works of the nineteenth century.
A great polemicist, Carlyle coined the term "the dismal science" for economics. He also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and his Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849) remains controversial. Once a Christian, Carlyle lost his faith while attending the University of Edinburgh, later adopting a form of Deism. His philosophy, combined with his appreciation of the German culture, the Norse mythology and his anti-democratic views, is considered by some a prelude for fascism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle
