"Of No Moment to Me": The Critical Reception of Carlyle's Historical Sketches of Notable Persons and Events in the Reigns of James I and Charles I (1898)

In the aftermath of the furious controversies about James Anthony Froude's editorial practices, Alexander would have wished to retain control of this manuscript and protect it from Traill, who had egregiously misused Carlyle's texts in his introductions to the individual volumes of The Works. The book's obvious place lies between his study of Oliver Cromwell (1599-i688; ODNB) in his lecture "The Hero as King" (22 May 1840), published in On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841), and his 1845 edition of Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. The gestation of Historical Sketches coincided with the composition and publication in 1843 of Past and Present, and the book shares the latter's visceral attachment to historical experience. [...]Alexander must have been haunted by the heart of their dispute on executor ethics: if Froude ought not to have published some of what he did relating to Carlyle's private life, then what of publishing a work that Carlyle had refused to re-read, let alone revise, still less to authorise for publication?