Essays of Charles Lamb

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... NOTES I. A CHARACTER OF THE LATE ELIA BY A FRIEND London Magazine, January, 1823 This paper was first published by Lamb in the interval between the two series of Essays of Elia. He seems to have intended it partly as a farewell to his readers, and partly as a piece of mystification. With the omission of the latter part, it was reprinted by Moxon in 1833 as an appropriate preface to Lamb's last essays. This apologetic selfrevelation and humorous analysis of his own character, half ironical though it be, shows the causes of his unpopularity and is a valuable commentary on his style. 1. the late Elia. When Lamb began to write for the London Maga zine in August, 1820, he assumed the pen name of Elia (pronounced by him Ell-ia) in memory of an obscure Italian clerk of this name whom he had known at the South-Sea House. 1 3-4. to see his papers collected into a volume. This volume included Elia's twenty-eight contributions to the London Magazine, August, 1820, to November, 1822, and an essay on Valentine's Day from the Indicator of February, 1821. It was issued from the press of Taylor and Hessey, London, 1823. "Eleven years after," says Mr. Charles Kent, "before the author's death, it was already out of print, a stray copy only by rare chance being purchasable at a book-stall." 14-5. the London Magazine appeared in January, 1820, as a monthly under the editorial direction of John Scott. Thirteen months later, when Scott was killed in a duel with Christie of Blackwood's Magazine, the London passed into the hands of Taylor and Hessey. In the five years of its existence, though not financially successful, it had many famous contributors, among them being Lamb, De Quincey, Hazlitt, Procter, Hood, Cary, Cunningham, Montgomery, Keats, Mitford, ...