--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot…" description: "\"“Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot had progressed through the bookshelves. Roland could see her black silk skirts, her velvet trains, sweeping c..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3fc/a-s-byatt-5275_carlyle_here-carlyle-had-come-here-george-eliot_3049685.png" --- # Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot had progressed… ![“Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot had progressed through the bookshelves. Roland could see her black silk skirts, her velvet trains, sweeping compressed between the Fathers of the Church, and heard her firm foot ring on metal among the German poets.” quote by A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3fc/a-s-byatt-5275_carlyle_here-carlyle-had-come-here-george-eliot_3049685.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3fc/a-s-byatt-5275_carlyle_here-carlyle-had-come-here-george-eliot_3049685.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3fc/a-s-byatt-5275_carlyle_here-carlyle-had-come-here-george-eliot_3049685.png) > ““Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot had progressed through the bookshelves. Roland could see her black silk skirts, her velvet trains, sweeping compressed between the Fathers of the Church, and heard her firm foot ring on metal among the German poets.”” [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage blends literary history with vivid visual detail, showing how past great writers influence the present scene. **In simple terms:** Past writers inspire present moments. Key Takeaway Notice how history shapes current perception. Themes literature history visual detail Mood reflective nostalgic Type descriptive literary When to use this quote - museum visits - literary analysis - creative writing Key Concepts intertextuality symbolism Questions to Reflect On - How does the past influence your present view? - What details make history feel alive? A Different Perspective The description may idealize the past, overlooking complexities. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/carlyle/) [George-eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/george-eliot-2/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Possession](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/possession/) ## Related quotes > [“Compare King William with the philosopher Haeckel. 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Somerset Maugham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-somerset-maugham/) > [I wish always to be quoted as George Eliot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/i-wish-always-to-be-quoted-as-george-eliot/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Someday, sometime, you will be sitting somewhere. A berm overlooking a pond in Vermont. The lip of the Grand Canyon at sunset. 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Housman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-e-housman/) > [“The golden moments īn the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; The angels come to visit us, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-white/the-golden-moments-n-the-stream-of-life-rush-past-us-and-we-see/) [Karen White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-white/) > [Writers in the nineteenth century - people like George Eliot and Flaubert - were accustomed to addressing particular communities with which they shared not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/writers-in-the-nineteenth-century-people-like-george-eliot-and/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [But you know, where did the Brontes go to college? Where did George Eliot go to college? Where did Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jamaica-kincaid/but-you-know-where-did-the-brontes-go-to-college-where-did-george/) [Jamaica Kincaid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jamaica-kincaid/) > [“The angels come to visit us,          and we only know them   when they are gone.     —George Eliot”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ann-brashares/the-angels-come-to-visit-us-and-we-only-know-them-when-they-are-gone/) [Ann Brashares](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ann-brashares/) > [Great literature has always been written in a like spirit, and is, indeed, the Forgiveness of Sin, and when we find it becoming the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/great-literature-has-always-been-written-in-a-like-spirit-and-is/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) ## More by A.S. Byatt > [“...bleached by darkness”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/bleached-by-darkness/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“Above his head at street level, he saw an angled aileron of a scarlet Porsche, its jaunty fin more or less at the upper…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/above-his-head-at-street-level-he-saw-an-angled-aileron-of-a-scarlet/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“Why do you go cold?" He kept his voice gentle. "I - I've analysed it. Because I have the sort of good looks I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/why-do-you-go-cold-he-kept-his-voice-gentle-i-i-ve-analysed-it/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“She was a thinking child, and worked this out. It hurt her, unlike most knowledge, which was strength and pleasure.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/she-was-a-thinking-child-and-worked-this-out-it-hurt-her-unlike-most/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“Those words . . . national and portrait. 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Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“ We must come to grief and regret anyway - and I for one would rather regret the reality than its phantasm, knowledge than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/we-must-come-to-grief-and-regret-anyway-and-i-for-one-would-rather/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“Roland had learned to see himself, theoretically, as a crossing-place for a number of systems, all loosely connected. He had been trained to see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/roland-had-learned-to-see-himself-theoretically-as-a-crossing-place/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“She thought human thoughts and stone thoughts. The latter were slow, patchily coloured, textured and extreme, both hot and cold. They did not translate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/she-thought-human-thoughts-and-stone-thoughts-the-latter-were-slow/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“…it will be possible, in the time of the wolf, to kill the gods.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/it-will-be-possible-in-the-time-of-the-wolf-to-kill-the-gods/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“She looked, quickly, quickly, it was better than before, thanked him and averted her eyes. She came to trust him with her disintegration.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/she-looked-quickly-quickly-it-was-better-than-before-thanked-him-and/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“This is where I have always been coming to. Since my time began. And when I go away from here, this will be the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/this-is-where-i-have-always-been-coming-to-since-my-time-began-and/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“...I have always believed I cd diagnose this state of being in love, which they regard as most particular, as inspired by item, one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/i-have-always-believed-i-cd-diagnose-this-state-of-being-in-love/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) > [“The children mingled with the adults, and spoke and were spoken to. Children in these families, at the end of the nineteenth century, were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt/the-children-mingled-with-the-adults-and-spoke-and-were-spoken-to/) [A.S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) [Explore all 99 A.S. Byatt quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt/) ## More Carlyle quotes > [Carlyle said 'a lie cannot live.' It shows that he did not know how to tell them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/carlyle-said-a-lie-cannot-live-it-shows-that-he-did-not-know-how-to/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [“Emerson loved the good and his life was a symphony of peace and harmony, Carlyle hated the bad, and his life was a record…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/emerson-loved-the-good-and-his-life-was-a-symphony-of-peace-and/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“privately he composed—in French—a poem expressing his pleasure at having given the French a kick in the cul, which Carlyle delicately translated as “the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-durant/privately-he-composed-in-french-a-poem-expressing-his-pleasure-at/) [Will Durant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-durant/) > [“My books are friends that never fail me." ( Letter to his mother, Margaret A. Carlyle ; 17 March 1817)”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-carlyle/my-books-are-friends-that-never-fail-me-letter-to-his-mother-margaret/) [Thomas Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-carlyle/) > [IT is reported of Margaret Fuller that she said she accepted the universe. "Gad, she'd better!" retorted Carlyle. Carlyle himself did not accept the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-burroughs/it-is-reported-of-margaret-fuller-that-she-said-she-accepted-the/) [John Burroughs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-burroughs/) > [Popular opinion is oftenest, what Carlyle pronounced it to be, a lie!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-phillips/popular-opinion-is-oftenest-what-carlyle-pronounced-it-to-be-a-lie/) [Wendell Phillips](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-phillips/) > [Carlyle, a man of strong words and attitudes, a rhetorician out of necessity, constantly aroused by the craving for a strong faithas well as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/carlyle-a-man-of-strong-words-and-attitudes-a-rhetorician-out-of/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“A great man shows his greatness,” said Carlyle, “by the way he treats little men.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/a-great-man-shows-his-greatness-said-carlyle-by-the-way-he-treats/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Mr. Rubenstein says he likes to apply the “mother standard” to giving. “When I built Carlyle, my mother didn’t call to say, ‘I’m so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/mr-rubenstein-says-he-likes-to-apply-the-mother-standard-to-giving/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. —historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carol-tavris/the-greatest-of-faults-i-should-say-is-to-be-conscious-of-none/) [Carol Tavris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carol-tavris/) > [“In employing the long sentence the inexperienced writer should not strain after the heavy, ponderous type. Johnson and Carlyle used such a type, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-devlin/in-employing-the-long-sentence-the-inexperienced-writer-should-not/) [Joseph Devlin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-devlin/) > [“Carlyle had no option but to sit down and recompose the book as best he could—a task made all the more challenging by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bryson/carlyle-had-no-option-but-to-sit-down-and-recompose-the-book-as-best/) [Bill Bryson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-bryson/) > [Carlyle: a passionate outpouring of words recommending silence and self-control.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/carlyle-a-passionate-outpouring-of-words-recommending-silence-and/) [Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/) > [“Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-carlyle/under-all-speech-that-is-good-for-anything-there-lies-a-silence-that-2/) [Thomas Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-carlyle/) > [It is curious for one who studies the action and reaction of national literature on each other, to see the humor of Swift and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-russell-lowell/it-is-curious-for-one-who-studies-the-action-and-reaction-of-national/) [James Russell Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-russell-lowell/) [Browse all 34 Carlyle quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/carlyle/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Here Carlyle had come, here George Eliot had progressed through the bookshelves. 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