Essays of Elia

by Charles Lamb

19th CenturyEssays
186,101 words65 chapters~745 min read
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Charles Lamb's "Essays of Elia" captures early 19th-century London life through personal, whimsical reflections on childhood, work, and human nature. These intimate essays blend humor with melancholy as Lamb explores everything from roast pig to old china with distinctive warmth and wit.

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This volume contains the work by which Charles Lamb is best known and upon which his fame will rest--_Elia_ and _The Last Essays of Elia_. Although one essay is as early as 1811, and one is perhaps as late as 1832, the book represents the period between 1820 and 1826, when Lamb was between forty-five and fifty-one. This was the richest period of his literary life. The text of the present volume is that of the first edition of each book--_Elia_, 1823, and _The Last Essays of Elia_, 1833. The principal differences between the essays as they were printed in the _London Magazine_ and elsewhere, and as they were revised for book form by their author, are shown in the Notes, which, it should be pointed out, are much fuller in my large edition. The three-part essay on "The Old Actors" (_London Magazine_, February, April, and October, 1822), from which Lamb prepared the three essays; "On Some of…
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Contents · 65 chapters

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. THE SOUTH-SEA HOUSE
  3. OXFORD IN THE VACATION
  4. THE TWO RACES OF MEN
  5. THE NEW YEAR
  6. A CHAPTER ON EARS
  7. THE OLD AND THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER
  8. IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES
  9. WITCHES, AND OTHER NIGHT-FEARS
  10. MY RELATIONS
  11. MACKERY END, IN HERTFORDSHIRE
  12. MODERN GALLANTRY
  13. THE OLD BENCHERS OF THE INNER TEMPLE
  14. GRACE BEFORE MEAT
  15. MY FIRST PLAY
  16. DREAM-CHILDREN
  17. DISTANT CORRESPONDENTS
  18. THE PRAISE OF CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS
  19. A COMPLAINT OF THE DECAY OF BEGGARS IN THE METROPOLIS
  20. A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG
  21. ON SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS
  22. ON THE ARTIFICIAL COMEDY OF THE LAST CENTURY
  23. ON THE ACTING OF MUNDEN
  24. PREFACE
  25. BLAKESMOOR IN H-----SHIRE
  26. POOR RELATIONS
  27. STAGE ILLUSION
  28. TO THE SHADE OF ELLISTON
  29. ELLISTONIANA
  30. DETACHED THOUGHTS ON BOOKS AND READING
  31. THE OLD MARGATE HOY
  32. THE CONVALESCENT
  33. SANITY OF TRUE GENIUS
  34. CAPTAIN JACKSON
  35. THE SUPERANNUATED MAN
  36. THE GENTEEL STYLE IN WRITING
  37. BARBARA S----
  38. THE TOMBS IN THE ABBEY
  39. AMICUS REDIVIVUS
  40. SOME SONNETS OF SIR PHILIP SYDNEY
  41. NEWSPAPERS THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
  42. THE WEDDING
  43. THE CHILD ANGEL
  44. A DEATH-BED
  45. OLD CHINA
  46. I.--THAT A BULLY IS ALWAYS A COWARD
  47. II.--THAT ILL-GOTTEN GAIN NEVER PROSPERS
  48. III.--THAT A MAN MUST NOT LAUGH AT HIS OWN JEST
  49. V.--THAT THE POOR COPY THE VICES OF THE RICH
  50. VI.--THAT ENOUGH IS AS GOOD AS A FEAST
  51. IX.--THAT THE WORST PUNS ARE THE BEST
  52. X.--THAT HANDSOME IS THAT HANDSOME DOES
  53. XI.--THAT WE MUST NOT LOOK A GIFT-HORSE IN THE MOUTH
  54. XII.--THAT HOME IS HOME THOUGH IT IS NEVER SO HOMELY
  55. XIII.--THAT YOU MUST LOVE ME, AND LOVE MY DOG
  56. XIV.--THAT WE SHOULD RISE WITH THE LARK
  57. XV.--THAT WE SHOULD LIE DOWN WITH THE LAMB
  58. XVI.--THAT A SULKY TEMPER IS A MISFORTUNE
  59. APPENDIX
  60. ON SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS
  61. THE OLD ACTORS
  62. THE OLD ACTORS
  63. GRACE BEFORE MEAT
  64. THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA
  65. APPENDIX

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