Barnes & Noble Digital Library

Published in 1836, this pioneering mix of fiction and fact had a great influence on later writers despite having met with little success in its own time. In the novel, a nameless editor presents the life and work of a fictional German philosopher named Diogenes Teufelsdröckh who writes on the subject of clothing. Carlyle’s book satirizes the work of Hegel in particular, and German Idealism in general.