´the man who has most essentially modified the mind of his time...Whether we call him philosopher, poet, or moralist, he is the first teacher of our generation.´ Harriet Martineau Thomas Carlyle was one of the most influential commentators of the nineteenth century: writer, critic, historian, biographer and brilliant correspondent, he dominated his age. Described as ´the greatest writer of his time´ his Reminiscences lovingly trace three triumphs, sorrows, and achievements of his often turbulent marriage with Jane Welsh. Devastated by his wife´s death, Carlyle set down his recollections of their life together with moving directness, in an account that reveals much about his own character. The Reminiscences also recall Thomas´s father, James Carlyle, and his strong sense of identity growing up in Scotland. Jane Carlyle´s early loves, Francis Jeffrey (editor of the Edinburgh Review) and the minister Edward Irving who was destroyed by the mockery of ´speaking with tongues´, are also remembered, alongside the poets Southey and Wordsworth. Hurriedly published in 1881, the year of Carlyle´s death, the Reminiscences provoked outrage for their outspokenness. This edition for the first time restores the cuts of its first editor and offers a complete and authoritative text. Written in compelling and vivid prose, it is a unique introduction to some extraordinary mid-century Victorians.