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The Essays of Elia

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Charles Lamb

The Essays of Elia

Paperback (Forgotten Books May 19, 2012)
father survived but a few montlis; a sister of his who had formed one of the family died about the same time. Thus Charles and Mary, who had meantime recovered her reason, were left practically alone in the world; for their brother John held aloof, desiring that Mary should remain in the asylum. Charles had had an attack of insanity in the winter of 1795-6; it was, perhaps, in consequence of this, and the care of his sister, that he gave up the idea of marrying the Anna of his sonnets. He had no return of the madness, bui Mary had frequent relapses, the approach of which she felt in time to enable her to retire to the lunatic asylum. It was in 1796 that Lamb first appeared as an author, when four sonnets by him were published in a volume of Coleridge spoems. Lamb's sfirst attempt in prose, exclusive of letters, was the tale of Rosamund Gray (1798), incongruous and improbable, showing the authors weakness in narrative, but exhibiting the pathos, quaintness of description and appropriateness of quotation which form the excellence of the Essays of Elia. Of it Shelley wrote: "What a lovely thing is his Rosamund Gray! How much knowledge of the sweetest and deepest part of our nature is in it!" In the same year he wrote what is perhaps the best known of his poems, the first stanza of which he afterwards omitted - "Where are they gone, the old familiar faces? I had a mother, but she died and left me - Died prematurely in a day of horrors - All, all are gone, the old familiar faces." For the first seventeen years of the present century, Charles and Mary Lamb resided within the precincts of the Temple; first in Mitre Court Buildings, then in Inner Temple Lane. At the beginning of this period, Charles was employed as an occasional writer of trifles for newspapers, but he soon attempted more ambitious work. Rosamund Gray had shown that he was defective in the qualities which
Pages
50
Weight
4.5 oz.
Dimensions
6.0 x 0.1 in.

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