Romantic Affinities-German Authors and Carlyle: A Study in the History of Ideas

Roman S. Struc is a professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic
Studies at the University of Calgary.

This insightful examination of Carlyle’s extraordinary affinity with
the world of German Romanticism shows how the Scottish essayist and
historian integrated the ideas that emanated from that movement into his
literary criticism and other writings. Echoes of Goethe, the whimsical
Jean Paul, the ironic Tieck and Hoffmann, and the magical idealist
Novalis can be found in Carlyle’s work. Vida wisely makes little
distinction between “Klassik” and “Romantik”; for her, Goethe
and Hoffmann are part of the same magnificent movement that put Germany
on the European cultural map at the end of the 18th century.

Romantic Affinities is recommended to readers with an interest in the
interplay of ideas.