- Preface
- One. Introduction: The Crisis of Authority and the Critique of Political Economy
- Two. Becoming an Author: 1820-1830
- Schiller, Goethe, and the Career Narrative
- Carlyle's Fictions and the Career Narrative
- Authoring the Author
- Crisis in the Career: "The Reminiscence of James Carlyle"
- Three. Revolution and Authority: 1830-1837
- Sartor Resartus and the Revolution of 1830
- The Author as Sansculotte
- From Craigenputtoch to London
- From Transcendental Novel to Epic History
- The French Revolution as Symbolic History
- Rebuilding the Social Structure
- Authoring the Constitution: The Problem of Closure
- Four. Authoring the Polity: 1838-1850
- Introduction
- From Literature to Polity
- Chartism and the Rhetoric of Partisanship
- The "Hero as King" and the Idyll as Theocracy
- Cromwell Past and Present
- Past and Present: Epic as Action
- Revolution in Search of Authority
- From the "Irish Question" to the "Nigger Question"
- Five. The Return of the Father: 1851-1865
- Six. The End of Writing
- Closing Failures in The Reminiscences and "Shooting Niagara"
- The Eyre Controversy and the Dilemma of Literature
- List of Abbreviations
- Works Cited
Contents last modified 5 October 2001