History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great

Composition and publication

Carlyle's interest in Frederick began when he read a history of him in 1819 and became fond of quoting his saying "Another time we will do better." He first expressed his desire to write about Frederick in a letter addressed to G. R. Gleig dated 21 May 1830, wherein he made the following (unsuccessful) proposal:

Frederick the Great, as an Author, Soldier, King and Man, well deserves to have his History written; better perhaps than Charles XII, whose Biography by Voltaire has always seemed to me one of the most delightful Books. Let your Publishers offer me Three hundred pounds, and time to heat the historico-biographical crucible and fill it and fuse it properly, and I will give them the best single Volume I can on the brave Fritz: I think it might be ready before this time twelvemonth; and very probably I might go to Germany in winter to inquire into it better.
This is the most eligible enterprise I can think of at present: if you can arrange your side of it on these terms, I shall be very happy to hear so, as soon as possible, and proceed forthwith to take measures for performing mine. I do believe, a rather good Book might be written on the subject; at all events, I am willing to try.

His interest did not abate. In Sartor Resartus, which he wrote that year, Diogenes Teufelsdröckh's father is a retired sergeant in Frederick's army. Carlyle asked Karl August Varnhagen von Ense in 1840, "Did anyone ever write an adequate Life of your Frederick the Great?" He began reading a new biography of Frederick by Johann Preuss in 1845, shortly after he had completed the manuscript of Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. The biography prompted him to declare, "Certainly if there is a Hero for an Epic in these Ages—and why should there not in these ages as well as others,—then this is he!"

He began research for his work in 1851, after the completion of Latter-Day Pamphlets and The Life of John Sterling, touring Germany in the autumn of 1852. Progress was slow at first, as Carlyle harboured doubts about his subject and his ability to complete the task he had set for himself, as well as finding difficulty in accessing source materials. Nonetheless, he persisted, writing copious notes, a large collection of which are now in the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Various assistants helped with his research, making trips to the British Library and State Paper Office among other collections, also copying extracts from German histories. Carlyle purchased many books on German history, a significant number of which he left to Harvard University in his will; they are now housed in the Houghton Library. In 1854, Carlyle had a soundproof room built in the top story of his house on Cheyne Row in order to block the noise from his neighbours and the street. He wrote the remainder of Frederick there.

He completed the first two volumes in 1856 and they were published in 1858. A wearied Carlyle lamented that it "seems worth nothing to me, or less than nothing"; Varnhagen von Ense relates, "Carlyle says that his book on Frederick the Great is the poorest, most troublesome and arduous piece of work he has ever undertaken: no satisfaction in it at all, only labour and sorrow. 'What the devil had I to do with your Friedrich?'" Positive reception of the first two volumes encouraged him, and he made a second trip to Germany, "a visit made primarily to study twelve of the battlefields of Frederick the Great in Silesia, Bohemia, and Saxony," which he documented in Journey to Germany, Autumn 1858.

Originally planning to write four volumes, Carlyle realized that he would need six, as the first two only took the history to 1740 and the death of Frederick's father Frederick William I. After the 1858 journey he expressed hope that the book would be finished in two years, but it ended up taking seven. The third volume appeared in 1862, the fourth in 1864, and the last two in 1865. Carlyle was seventy years old the year the last volume was published (he turned 70 on 4 December 1865) and had acquired a tremor in his writing hand.