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The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 / Elia and The Last Essays of Elia

Charles Lamb

  • Essays
  • Book language: English
  • 597 pages

Elia and The Last Essays of Elia is a two-part collection of personal essays by Charles Lamb, written under the pen name Elia. They range over memory, London life, books, friends, and the theatre, combining humour with gentle melancholy. It is worth hearing for Lamb's intimate, digressive style and his warm sketches of people and places.

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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

THE WORKS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB, VOLUME 2

ELIA; and THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA

BY

CHARLES LAMB

EDITED BY

E.V. LUCAS

[Illustration]

WITH A FRONTISPIECE

INTRODUCTION

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

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Contents

  1. WITH A FRONTISPIECE
  2. INTRODUCTION
  3. CONTENTS
  4. ELIA
  5. OXFORD IN THE VACATION
  6. CHRIST'S HOSPITAL FIVE AND THIRTY YEARS AGO
  7. THE TWO RACES OF MEN
  8. NEW YEAR'S EVE
  9. MRS. BATTLE'S OPINIONS ON WHIST
  10. A CHAPTER ON EARS
  11. ALL FOOLS' DAY
  12. THE OLD AND THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER
  13. VALENTINE'S DAY
  14. IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES
  15. WITCHES, AND OTHER NIGHT-FEARS
  16. MY RELATIONS
  17. MACKERY END, IN HERTFORDSHIRE
  18. MODERN GALLANTRY
  19. THE OLD BENCHERS OF THE INNER TEMPLE
  20. GRACE BEFORE MEAT
  21. MY FIRST PLAY
  22. DREAM-CHILDREN
  23. DISTANT CORRESPONDENTS
  24. THE PRAISE OF CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS
  25. A COMPLAINT OF THE DECAY OF BEGGARS IN THE METROPOLIS
  26. A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG
  27. A BACHELOR'S COMPLAINT OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF MARRIED PEOPLE
  28. ON SOME OF THE OLD ACTORS
  29. ON THE ARTIFICIAL COMEDY OF THE LAST CENTURY
  30. ON THE ACTING OF MUNDEN

and 35 more chapters

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