2025 Oct NF - Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

October is essay time for us. Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb has various editions that range from ~200 to almost 500 pages. I linked this one for its accessible ISBN. Charles Lamb was a British essayist, and earlier this year we read Ten Tales from Shakespeare by him and his sister, Mary, as part of our short story selections.

From GR of this linked edition: Published under the pseudonym "Elia," Charles Lamb’s book, by turns witty, insightful, self-deprecating, and philosophical, offers an unusually warm, human glimpse of life in a circle that included such luminaries as Coleridge, Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt. Published in The London Magazine in the early 1820s, these often nostalgic essays are important documents in the development of autobiographical writing which gained him a devoted following among 19th-century readers.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I've started reading these. It takes a while to get used to the old fashioned language, but they are entertaining.
The essay about his school, Christ's Hospital, was generally light and amusing until he described some of the punishments and lack of good food inflicted on the boys.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I've finished Elia and the Last Essays of Elia.
It takes a while to get used to his style, but once you do there are some entertaining essays. The only essays that I found boring dealt with some descriptions of famous actors of his time.