The Essays of Elia

By Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was considered the most delightful of English essayists in the middle of the 19th century. Essays of Elia is a collection of his finest work. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pomona Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447486343

Reviews for The Essays of Elia

[roboschro · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"I am one of those, who freely and ungrudgingly impart a share of the good things of this life which fall to their lot (few as mine are in this kind) to a friend. I protest I take as great an interest in my friend's pleasures, his relishes, and proper satisfactions, as in mine own."Having read this rather delightful little volume, I can believe it. Originally published in 1823, these essays give us a glimpse into a vanished everyday, coloured by the homely and conservative tastes of a London nostalgic."Elia" spends little time on big issues. His concern is for the trivial, the comforting, the eccentric. Topics that get particular attention include the theatre, the Temple area of London, childhood, and food. We get affectionate portraits of old ladies, lawyers, artists, and chimney sweeps. There are bitter or critical passages, on theatre audiences, old schoolmasters, or prayer habits, that stop the book from becoming too sentimental.Probably the most compelling thing about the book to a modern reader is the perspective it gives on a particular period in history. This isn't a historian's history, it's a window on eighteenth-century London provided by a contemporary observer. It's hardly thorough -- Lamb's attention flits about erratically -- but it's authentic. Well, mostly so -- "Elia"'s life isn't Charles Lamb's, and there is much talk of family without a mention of the sort of tragedy that affected Lamb's own family.As this book was kindly provided by Hesperus Press for review, I should comment on this particular edition. For scholars, I wouldn't particulary recommend it. The footnotes are incredibly sparse, so much so that one wonders why they're present at all; and Lamb's own notes in the text sometimes appear on the wrong page. But for the casual reader, what Hesperus have done fits the bill well. It's elegantly presented, and both looks and feels like a quality volume.All in all, a pleasure to read.

[deputyheadmistress_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In a 1903 review of a collection of Lamb's works, the reviewer called his essays 'dainty and delightful,' 'gemlike, possessing 'delicate grace and whimsical gaiety'. This is all still true, though the gaity has perhaps been muted a bit by the years. There is a sweetness and gentleness to Lamb that, while old-fashioned and sometimes seemingly stilted, still makes him, as that older reviewer said, an apt "companion for highways and byways and garden seats."

[monkeyrobo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"I am one of those, who freely and ungrudgingly impart a share of the good things of this life which fall to their lot (few as mine are in this kind) to a friend. I protest I take as great an interest in my friend's pleasures, his relishes, and proper satisfactions, as in mine own."Having read this rather delightful little volume, I can believe it. Originally published in 1823, these essays give us a glimpse into a vanished everyday, coloured by the homely and conservative tastes of a London nostalgic."Elia" spends little time on big issues. His concern is for the trivial, the comforting, the eccentric. Topics that get particular attention include the theatre, the Temple area of London, childhood, and food. We get affectionate portraits of old ladies, lawyers, artists, and chimney sweeps. There are bitter or critical passages, on theatre audiences, old schoolmasters, or prayer habits, that stop the book from becoming too sentimental.Probably the most compelling thing about the book to a modern reader is the perspective it gives on a particular period in history. This isn't a historian's history, it's a window on eighteenth-century London provided by a contemporary observer. It's hardly thorough -- Lamb's attention flits about erratically -- but it's authentic. Well, mostly so -- "Elia"'s life isn't Charles Lamb's, and there is much talk of family without a mention of the sort of tragedy that affected Lamb's own family.As this book was kindly provided by Hesperus Press for review, I should comment on this particular edition. For scholars, I wouldn't particulary recommend it. The footnotes are incredibly sparse, so much so that one wonders why they're present at all; and Lamb's own notes in the text sometimes appear on the wrong page. But for the casual reader, what Hesperus have done fits the bill well. It's elegantly presented, and both looks and feels like a quality volume.All in all, a pleasure to read.

[jnyrose_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a lovely little book. Lamb's "Essays of Elia" is one of those books that encourage you to find a quiet place to read with a cup of tea and to just allow the words, images, and emotions to wash over you. They run the gamut from nostalgia to detailed observations of human nature and are just fun to dip in and out of over a week or so. This is a slim volume and not intimidating at all and a great picture of the England of Lamb's childhood. Much fun.

[mldg_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Usually, I delight in an afternoon spent reading a collection of essays. The Essays of Elia take a bit more concentration to get to the delight. They were written in the early 1800s and look back to an earlier time. While much of the vocabulary and turns of phrase are archaic, the observations of human nature are timeless. This volume requires a rereading on my part. I think it is probably worth it.

[dianaleez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Charles Lamb's 'Essays of Elia' are a balm to the spirit and a delight to those who love words.Surely everyone remembers Lamb and his tragic story from high school lit classes, but (perhaps as he intended) his essays transcend the reality of his life and speak to the modern reader. Lamb is erudite; he is funny; he is precise and flamboyant; in a phrase, he is a literary tour de force.There are twenty-seven well-wrought essays, among them interesting insights on Valentines Day, ears, gallantry, and, of course, his famous discourse on roast pig.Modern reader do not despair in this age of quick and easy journalism; here's a master at work. Read, smile, relax!

[4daisies · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This collection of essays gives a look at life as it was in England in the late 18th-early 19th centuries. At times it was challenging to read with the language so changed from then to now, but it was worth the effort. I came to realize that, while the language has evolved, the behavior of people remains largely the same. The bullies that existed then, exist now, the same prejudices and discrimination haunt modern society that tore at the fabric of polite English society then. There were certainly bright spots as well, my favorite being the Mackery End, In Hertfordshire in which he describes his comfortable platonic relationship with his long time live-in housekeeper/cousin Bridget Elia. Both of them avid readers but with distinctly different tastes in books. "We are both great readers in different directions. While I am hanging over (for the thousandth time) some passage in old Burton, or one of his strange contemporaries, she is abstracted in some modern tale, or adventure, whereof our common reading table is daily fed with assiduously fresh supplies. Narrative teases me. I have little concern in the progress of events. She must have a story - well, ill, or indifferently told - so there be life stirring in it, an plenty of good or evil accidents." If you have patience dear reader, relax your mind and absorb the stories, you will be rewarded with many little gems in this collection.

[lizzied_11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am grateful that I came to these essays at a time when I have both the leisure to read them and some of the mental equipment to appreciate them. On the other hand, I find myself in the same position as the high school student, required to deliver an essay on Shakespeare, who wrote, "William is a very good writer. He has great use of language." So. Charles is a very good writer. He has great use of language. These pseudonymous essays are looks back at the England of Lamb's youth. They are wonderful to read for the details of that vanished time as well as for their wit and thoughtfulness. (You thought I was going to write "wit and wisdom," didn't you? I recall but can't find his deprecation of onomatopoeia. And I am laughing again at sentences from the first essay, "dusty maps of Mexico, dim as dreams," or "--- for Mammon to have solaced his solitary heart withal, long since dissipated, or scattered into the air at the blast of the breaking of that famous bubble.")I find my heart agreeing with his praise of Miss Susan Winstanley who insisted that her suitor treat poor women with the same courtesy that he used toward herself. I say "Amen!" as he explores the discomfort he feels when pious thanks are given for a sumptuous meal when others are hungry. If I am put off by his feeling of the loss of colorful beggars in his contemporary London, I simply think that I need to reread the essay.I will reread the essays! This handsome paperback from Hesperus Press (Thank you, LT ER's!) has earned its permanent place on my bedside table, a book to compose the mind before sleep.

[carlym_35 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really expected to like this book, but I couldn't even finish it. After reading several essays--about a quarter of the book--I decided it wasn't worth reading any more. The essays do contain some witty bits, and I liked the one about celebrating New Year's okay, but on the whole, they are too antiquated to be enjoyable. They reference people and things I've never heard of, which makes them difficult to puzzle out. For example, an essay on Valentine's Day contains these sentences: "Or wert thou indeed a mortal prelate, with thy tippet and thy rochet, thy apron on, and decent lawn sleeves? Mysterious personage! Like unto thee, assuredly, there is no other mitred father in the calendar; not Jerome, nor Ambrose, nor Cyril . . . " and so on. I have no idea what a "tippet" and a "rochet" are, nor am I familiar with any of the people named. For a reader who has the right frame of reference, these might be enjoyable. For me, I didn't understand enough of the references to even understand half of what Lamb was saying.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed these essays, though I needed a quiet place to read them in. I would have had more enjoyment out of them if I had known more of the people and events he was commenting on. Many times it would seem as though he was rambling on and suddenly he would let loose with a zinger of a thought. One which required either throwing back your head with laughter or putting the book aside and thinking about it. Some of the essays were very personalized and only meaningful for their description of the times, such as those about solicitors and actors. Others were universal, such as those about books, food and personalities.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lamb is the most delightful of essayists. While he strove daily to keep his world and his sister's from flying to pieces, he wrote some of the wisest and perceptive essays, lively and enfused with a gentle understanding. The generosity of his spirit is extraordinary. These essays have very rightly been treasured as classics

[gardnecl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

19th Century Blogging at its best.

[pensivepoet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From the foreword, I was already taken with this slim volume Hesperus Press.Opening with descriptions of nostalgia as a once serious medical condition I could see contrasts between modern life, the modern life of yesteryear, and the life of the "days gone by" for Lamb's time. A quoted description of a nostalgic is offered as: [one who] 'does what he is told... he proffers not a single word of reproach against those whomake his life miserable'. It was intriguing that such passivity could be considered undesirable, when at times it seems modern psychiatry is striving for the absence of complaint. Today, my feeling is that- for the most part, we (as a society) would see one who 'offers a word of reproach' to be being difficult person. Then again, that is my personal musing on the current rights of individuals who hold opinions strongly. But, for me, from the opening of the Hesperus edition I could already see juxtapositions between the lives and attitudes of different times.While modern readers may not be intimately familiar with the surrounding Lamb refers to in the book, there remains a wealth of relevant information in the descriptions. We may have never seen the South-Sea “house of trade” but in the tale of the of the accountants “taking part in the genius of the place” a reader not only finds nostalgia, but a process of “dumbing down” and “homogenization” that continues to exist in parts of corporate culture. Or, to take a more personal example, Lambs essay on “The behavior of married people” does not fail to provide many relate-able, humorous, musings on married couples being “too forgiving, too loving”. I loved the essays! And believe them to be a fine purchase for both historical collector and anyone willing to bear with nostalgia for the reward of chuckles.