satt comments on The mystery of Brahms - Less Wrong

5 Post author: PhilGoetz 21 October 2015 05:12AM

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Comment author: satt 23 October 2015 01:10:47AM *  4 points [-]

I doubt that. Comparing how often Thomas Carlyle's mentioned in English books relative to Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Stuart Mill, Charles Dickens, and John Ruskin — contemporary celebrity writers & critics mentioned in Carlyle's Wikipedia article by their full names — suggests Carlyle's maintained a respectable level of fame, even as his star's dimmed since his 1880s peak. (While the heavyweights, Dickens & Mill, consistently beat Carlyle, Carlyle roughly matches Ruskin, and in British books Carlyle soundly beats Emerson, who seems more of an American taste.)