Page 42 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Unit 4: Charles Lamb-Dream Children : A Reverie-A Critical Analysis
Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Unit 4: Charles Lamb-Dream Notes

Children : A Reverie-A Critical Analysis

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
4.1 Charles Lamb’s Major Works
4.2 Critical Analysis

4.3 Lexical Features
4.4 Sentence Features
4.5 On Humour and Pathos as used by Charles Lamb

4.6 Article Features
4.7 Summary
4.8 Keywords
4.9 Review Questions

4.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Discuss the major works of Charles Lamb;
• Explain Lamb’s Dream Children : A Reverie.

Introduction

A well-known literary figure in nineteenth-century England, Lamb is chiefly remembered for
his “Elia” essays, works celebrated for their witty and ironic treatment of everyday subjects.
Through the persona of “Elia,” Lamb developed a highly personal narrative technique to
achieve what many critics regard as the epitome of the familiar essay style. Extremely popular
in Lamb’s day, the “Elia” essays first appeared in the London Magazine between 1820 and 1825,
but were later collected into two volumes. These nostalgic works have appealed to readers
throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly because of their gradual revelation
of Lamb’s literary alter ego and his humorous idiosyncrasies. Lamb’s other writings include
criticism of William Shakespeare’s dramas and the virtual rediscovery of a number of neglected
Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights in the early nineteenth century. A dramatist and a
skilled poet, Lamb was also a noted children’s author, frequently in collaboration with his
sister, Mary. Lamb’s essays are thought to demonstrate a characteristically Romantic imagination
akin to that of the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Lamb’s contemporaries
and friends. Overall, Lamb is highly regarded as an essayist, an original and perceptive critic,
and a noteworthy correspondent with the renowned literati of early nineteenth-century England.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 37