Elia and the Last Essays of Elia

The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb #2

by Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb, Edward Verrall Lucas (Editor)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Essays, Classics, Nonfiction, 19th Century

588 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1833

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

[Chrystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first essays of Elia were published in 1820; the last essays of Elia in 1833. Most of the essays are about memories of life as it was "30 years ago," which would be at the turn of the 18th century into the 19th. This fact alone is a good reason to read these essays. It is a glimpse of life in a bygone era.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dig this:

Say it as “El-i-a,” and it sounds like “a liar.” Then try “El-i-a,” and you hear “Elijah,” the biblical prophet, messenger of divine truth. “El-i-a.” Hallelujah? El, Hebrew for God? Or, as one reader of Lamb heard echoed, “elegist”?

Another student of Lamb proposed “Eelya,” rhyming with “Celia.”

Look only at the letters. “Elia” is an anagram for “A lie.”

Lamb relished this clever arrangement of letters. He said the name should be pronounced “Ellia,” after the Italian clerk at the South Sea House.

But a contemporary rhymed “Elia” with “aspire,” suggesting that the word indeed sounded like “a liar.”

Wonderful, ain't it?

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why the essays proved popular; they cover a wide range of topics, and are interesting and occasionally thought-provoking without being too dense. I did find them wearing after a while though.

[Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The extensive recounting of stories of the theater from his time came to greatly wear on me, but the writing was lively. Great for historical and cultural context too.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kindle copy wasn’t ever good. The structure of the novel was off and made it hard to read. I did enjoy a few essays.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read enough of these to get the idea. There was some really good, thought-provoking or funny stuff. Also enough references to obsolete persons/places to make it difficult to follow at times. I did love the famous "Dream Children" essay, and a hilarious one about music (from a person who doesn't like it).

[James Violand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written essays on just about anything that came to his mind. He was very popular in England during the early 1800s. We can benefit by imitating his cogent progression of any position.

[Mary Quire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review

I found some of Lamb's essays very interesting and some were even quite funny. He seemed to be a very interesting man. I'm glad I had the opportunity to read his work.