ThomasCarlyle’sPastandPresent(1843)wasapropheticwarningofimpendingdisasterformid-VictorianBritainthatwasdeliveredinwhattheauthordescribedasa’miraculousthunder-voice,fromoutofthecentreoftheworld.’TheimpactofCarlyle’ssocialcriticismwasimmediateandprofound,shapingdebateaboutthe’TheConditionofEngland’questionwellintothetwentiethcenturyandbeyond,andservingasthemoralfoundationofthewelfarestate.HisrelentlesslyabrasiveandilluminatingcritiqueofindustrialcivilizationgeneratedavastrangeofresponsebothinEngland,Europe,andtheUnitedStates.ThewritingsofMatthewArnold,JohnStuartMill,WilliamMorris,JohnHenryNewman,andJohnRuskin,aswellasHenryDavidThoreau,RalphWaldoEmerson,andWaltWhitman,weresaturatedwithimageryandideasdirectlyindebtedtothebook.PastandPresentalsoprovidednovelistsandpoetswithanenduringvisionoftheubiquitousrotthatlayattheheartof’laissez-faire’England.TherepercussionsofCarlyle’suniqueanalysiscanbewitnessedintheliteraryformandthematiccontentofsuchworksasCharlesDickens’sChristmasCarol(1843),DombeyandSon(1848),BleakHouse(1852-53),andHardTimes(1854);BenjaminDisraeli’sSybil(1845);ElizabethGaskell’sMaryBarton(1848)andNorthandSouth(1855);andCharlesKingsley’sAltonLocke(1850).PoetssuchasAlfredTennysoninMaud(1855),ElizabethBarrettBrowninginAuroraLeigh(1856),andArthurHughCloughinTheLatestDecalogue(1862)builtavocabularythatwassteepedintheoutrageandindignationofCarlyle’spolemic.TheartistFordMadoxBrownattemptedinhispaintingWork(1852-65)togivevisualtestimonytotheprofoundsocialschismsthatCarlylehadexposedinPastandPresentandtopaytributetothe’Sage’whohad’mouldedanationtohispattern.’
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