The Complete Works and Letters of Charles Lamb

by Charles Lamb, Saxe Commins (editor)

This collection of Charles Lamb's complete works and letters commemorates the nimble wit, the gracious style, and the critical perception of the famous essayist.

Genres: Classics, Essays

1142 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Charles Lamb was an English essayist with Welsh heritage, best known for his "Essays of Elia" and for the children's book "Tales from Shakespeare", which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847).

Reviews

[Alok Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be jealous - I own the hardback!
Well, Lamb is one of the underrated literary personalities of England. Other than the Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and Essays of Elia, people know very less of his writings and personality. This work, if read randomly, will certainly bring out the genius (whatever limitations you might ascribe) Lamb was!

[Rozzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lamb is very dated. As of this year (2012) his fans must be few. I like him very much. I find him appealing as a person and a writer, though his prose really reeks of early 19th Century preciosity. At the very least he, Lamb, can almost be said to have created that preciosity. You won't find it in any of the 18th Century greats.

Johnson was a blowhard to be sure (though I like him). And certainly Richardson and his school can today produce yawns and stretches. But to me at least, one had to wait for Lamb to experience what would become commonplace in the English literature of the 19th Century: figuratively stale air, oppressive duty and vicious boredom. You see, at the beginning it was all new and fresh with Lamb. Thereafter it was coopted and adopted by the correct, the respectable, the disciplined. What a crock.

Here was this (truly) little man trotting back and forth to an office and spending most of his day perched on a high stool making entries in huge ledgers. To return in the evenings to his insane sister and their joint lodgings, interspersed with whatever kind of joviality and entertainment could be experienced in noisy, smoky back rooms at neighboring taverns.

Yes, it's true. He created and maintained the great legend of the poor, impecunious little man sacrificing his life for family obligations but striving to do his best under very difficult conditions. A great, endearing and enduring hero among the Victorian middle class. It may or may not have been true. There aren't many people today who even know his name. I wonder if he's translated into Japanese.

[Gilbert Wesley Purdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 5-star rating is for the Essays of Elia. They reward a patient reader like few other such collections. Some of the letters are also of particular interest.