The directory «Plots»

Lamb Charles
(1775—1834)

English essayist and poet, most famous for his collection Essays of Elia (1823, 1833). The poem "The Old Familiar Faces" and the essay "Dream Children" are among his most popular works.

Lamb was born in London on February 10, 1775. He studied at Christ's Hospital where he formed a lifelong friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When he was twenty years old Lamb suffered a period of insanity. His sister, Mary Ann Lamb, had similar problems and in 1796 murdered her mother in a fit of madness. Mary was confined to an asylum but was eventually released into the care of her brother.

Lamb became friends in London with a group of young writers who favored political reform including Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt. In 1796 Lamb contributed four sonnets to Coleridge's Poems on Various Subjects (1796). This was followed by Blank Verse (1798) and Pride's Cure (1802).

Tales from Shakespeare (1807) which he wrote in collaboration with his sister and The Adventures Of Ulysses (1808) were valuable retellings of classic works for children. Lamb's critical comments in Specimens of English Dramatic poets who lived about the time of Shakespeare (1808) are among the classics of English criticism.

Lamb worked for the East India Company in London for 33 years but managed to contribute articles to several journals and newspapers including the London Magazine, The Morning Chronicle, The Morning Post and The Quarterly Review. Charles Lamb died on 29 December, 1834.

Great Britain. Bernera, 1979, Charles Lamb