The Letters of Thomas Babington MacAulay: Volume 3, January 1834-August 1841 (v. 3)

The third volume of Thomas Pinney's acclaimed edition of Macaulay's letters brings the work to its halfway point. This volume begins with Macaulay preparing to sail for India as a member of the supreme Council, covers his Indian career, his return to England, renewed election to Parliament and appointment to the Whig Cabinet; it ends with the defeat of Melbourne's ministry. Many of the letters are previously unpublished, and are notable for their brisk and vivid style, clear and readable as was all Macaulay's prose. They throw particular light on his Indian years, in which Macaulay played a significant part in liberalising movement begun by Bentinck. The period also took Macaulay through several personal crises, brought about by the death of one favourite sister and the marriage of another. In these letters too Macaulay often concerns himself with his continuing literary career. The years covered in this fifth volume of Macaulay's letters were a striking mixture of triumph and loss. The publication of the first part of The History of England at the end of 1848 set Macaulay at the top of his fame, not merely in England, but on the Continent and in America.