The Selected Prose

by Charles Lamb, Adam Phillips (Editor)

Essays examine a wide range of topics including William Shakespeare, reading, the Quakers, witchcraft, and letter writing

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, 19th Century, Classics, British Literature, Literature

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Charles Lamb was an English essayist with Welsh heritage, best known for his "Essays of Elia" and for the children's book "Tales from Shakespeare", which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847).

Reviews

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note on the Text
Introduction

Early Essays and Sketches (1811-14)

--On the Genius and Character of Hogarth
--On the Tragedies of Shakspeare
--Edax on Appetite
--Hospita on the Immoderate Indulgence of the Pleasures of the Palate
--The Good Clerk, a Character
--Wordsworth's 'Excursion'

From Essays of Elia (1823) and Last Essays of Elia (1833)

--The Two Races of Men
--A Quakers' Meeting
--The Old and the New Schoolmaster
--Imperfect Sympathies
--Witches, and Other Night-Fears
--Grace Before Meat
--My First Play
--Distant Correspondents
--On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century
--Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading
--Confessions of a Drunkard
--A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig
--A Bachelor's Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People
--A Character of the Late Elia
--The Old Margate Hoy
--The Superannuated Man
--The Convalescent
--Stage Illusion
--Sanity of True Genius
--Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in the Productions of Modern Art

Essays and Sketches (1821-7)

--Review of the First Volume of Hazlitt's Table Talk, 1821 (unpublished)
--Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire
--Readers Against the Grain
--A Vision of Horns
--The Illustrious Defunct 3272/
--Many Friends
--Dog Days
--A Character
--Charles Lamb's Autobiography

Appendix One: 'The Party at Haydon's'
Appendix Two: A Selection of Lamb's Notes from 'Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets' (1808)

Biographical Index of Correspondents and Contemporaries
Notes

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this. Picked it up in a splurge in the "Essays" section of Waterstones Gower St the other day, thinking, oh Lamb, "Essays of Elia", that's classic English essays innit, must be interesting.

Possibly I've just been OD-ing on essays; also I do notice that the older the essay the less likely I am to be engaged by it, even when I really want to (I love Montaigne, but contrary to all my former youthful literary snobbery I prefer him repackaged, abridged, presented for the modern reader rather than interminable, alien, and full of unexplained and laborious - for me - classical references).

In other words, I don't want to blame Lamb for my failure to enjoy this very much. Still, I didn't enjoy it very much.

And in fact, even with those allowances made, I think he's not really my type of essayist: too wilfully whimsical.

I did like a few though: "Confessions of a drunkard", which would not be out of place in a compendium of AA "sharing"; "A bachelor's complaint of the behaviour of married people" made some fair points quite entertainingly; and "The superannuated man" gives a fairly modern-seeming (and cheerful) account of life after retirement.

Maybe the best known individual piece is "On the tragedies of Shakespeare", which makes a provocative if not terribly convincing case that Shakespeare's plays (not just King Lear, as you might think from references to this essay in the literature) are, not merely as good to read as they are to see onstage, but in fact necessarily much poorer onstage than on page. He does make some good points here, about the conflicting requirements of a successful stage performance and an attentive, reflective act of reading. He doesn't, as he might have, make the point that Shakespeare was writing fairly shortly before the rise to Europe-wide prominence of imaginative prose literature (famously "Don Quixote" is contemporary with the mature Shakespeare tragedies, including Lear). ... Anyway, that essay, as the saying goes, makes you think.

Whereas a lot of the others just made me flip to the next one after a few lines.

[essie]

Entirely enjoyable.

[W.S. Luk · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I am all over sophisticated—with humours, fancies, craving hourly sympathy. I must have books, pictures, theatres, chit-chat, scandal, jokes, ambiguities, and a thousand whim-whams…”

From the artistry of Hogarth to the pleasures of roast pork, Charles Lamb's essays gleam with wit. Individualistic, irascible, professing to be obsessed with physical and intellectual appetite, constantly skeptical of contemporary artistic trends yet also very much a man of his era (particularly with regards to race and religion, and to the idea that Shakespeare's plays were better read than performed), this collection is sometimes uneven but full of Lamb's provocative comments on art in all its forms. Even the long section of letters, which I found much less utility in, boasts some intriguing details about Lamb's review of Wordsworth's poetry and his writings on food. Most readers may not want to read this cover to cover—for my taste, the most compelling essays in the volume are Lamb's works of literary and artistic criticism—but centuries on, Lamb's greatest works still shine brightly.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3530287.html

Collection of Lamb's writings on literature etc, but I'm afraid I found my general lack of interest in the subject matter too profound to appreciate the occasional rhetorical flourishes of his writing and gave up sixty pages in.

[Millie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked his first few essays, but then I lost interest. His comments on reading are the best bits I think.

[Anthony Cordova · Rating 5 out of 5]

We simply don't make writers (or men) like this anymore. Reading aloud Lamb immediately clears the air of all mediocrity.

[Jude · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[Oliver Eastham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheeky little man