Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh

London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889. Considered to be One of the Finest Works of the Nineteenth Century
A Superb Binding by Rivière & Son

[RIVIÈRE & SON, binders]. CARLYLE, Thomas. Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889.

Sixteenmo (6 3/16 x 3 5/8 inches; 157 x 93 mm.). [vi], 306, [1, imprint], [5, blank] pp. Portrait frontispiece with tissue guard. Title-page printed in red and black.

Bound ca. 1920 by Rivière & Son, stamp signed in gilt on lower turn-in. Full antelope crushed levant morocco, covers decoratively ruled in gilt surrounding a very elaborate floral design in pointillé, spine with five raised bands, similarly decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt-ruled board edges, full dark blue morocco liners elaborately decorated in gilt, blue watered silk end-leaves, top edge gilt. A wonderful example of the art of 'pointillé'.

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 and 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, 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 Sartor Resartus is considered one of the finest works of the nineteenth century.

Sartor Resartus (meaning 'The tailor re-tailored') is an 1836 novel by Thomas Carlyle, first published as a serial in 1833-34 in Fraser's Magazine. The novel purports to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (which translates as 'god-born devil-dung'), author of a tome entitled "Clothes: Their Origin and Influence", but was actually a poioumenon. Teufelsdröckh's Transcendentalist musings are mulled over by a skeptical English Reviewer (referred to as Editor) who also provides fragmentary biographical material on the philosopher. The work is, in part, a parody of Hegel, and of German Idealism more generally. However, Teufelsdröckh is also a literary device with which Carlyle can express difficult truths.