Inspirational Quotes by Charles Lamb (British Essayist, Poet)

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) was an English author, critic, and minor poet. He is best known for the essays he wrote under the name Elia. He remains one of the most adored and read of English essayists.

Born in Temple, London, Lamb spent his ‘joyful schooldays’ at Christ’s Hospital, where he started a lasting friendship with poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lamb earned his living as a clerk in the East India House. Much of his life was dedicated to caring for his sister Mary Lamb (1764–1847,) who killed their invalid mother in an attack of mania.

Lamb’s early efforts at writing included poetry, a little prose romance titled The Tale of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret (1797,) and John Woodvil (1801)—the result of his analysis of Elizabethan dramatic poetry, in whose revival he was to play so large a part.

Lamb is best known for his essays, most notably collected as The Essays of Elia (1820–23, 1833.) He is also remembered for his children’s books, which comprise Tales from Shakespeare (1807,) on which he collaborated with Mary.

Lamb’s eccentric wit—what he called a “self-pleasing quaintness”—was publicized through the identity of ‘Elia’ in The London Magazine (1820–25,) and his unfashionable dedication to London life as subject-matter earned him a place in the new Cockney School of metropolitan poets and essayists. By 1838, Charles Dickens was writing to associates endorsing the work of “the original kind-hearted, veritable Elia.”

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