Thomas Carlyle's reputation has been in gentle decline in recent years. In this new biography, Simon Heffer re-establishes his relevance to our age as well as showing why it is impossible to comprehend the Victorian period without understanding Carlyle. Using new material which has become available - especially the complete correspondence of Thomas and Jane Carlyle - Simon Heffer establishes Jane Carlyle as one of the finest letter writers of the 19th century and her husband not far behind her. Carlyle's early religious problems are examined, his intense friendships, his courtship and marriage to Jane, as well as his relations with the leading figures of his time - John Stuart Mill, Dickens, Froude, Ruskin and Tennyson.