I Too am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle

I Too am Here: Selections from the Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle by Simpson, Alan. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780521213042.

Alan and Mary McQueen Simpson introduce this selection from Jane Carlyles letters with an assessment of her character, her marriage to my Man of Genius Thomas Carlyle and her art of letter writing. The letters are arranged in sections corresponding to the main themes in her life. The selection begins with the strange, prolonged courtship; portraits, conscious and unconscious, of herself and her husband follow; much is about running the Chelsea house at 5 Cheyne Row, protecting Carlyle from noise, neighbours and bedbugs; a whole section is devoted to a Dickensian succession of mostly awful servants; another is about her outings - including a deeply poignant account of her return to her childhood home; another deals with Carlyles infatuation with Lady Ashburton as well as Janes puddling health and her recovery. This is a book to read right through with riveted enjoyment. It is one of the most fascinating correspondences in the English language.