Page 43 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Elective English–I

Notes 4.1 Charles Lamb’s Major Works

Although he began his literary career as a sonneteer, Lamb quickly discovered that his talent
and inclination lay in prose, not verse. His first fictional work, a short novel entitled A Tale
of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret, displays the influence of eighteenth-century sentimental
writers Henry Mackenzie and Laurence Sterne. Lamb’s next literary composition, John Woodvil
(1802), set shortly after England’s monarchical Restoration in 1660, owes a debt to Elizabethan
tragedy and features a commentary on the politics of Lamb’s day via historical analogy.
Lamb’s collaborative works with his sister, Mary, all fall into the category of juvenile literature
and include Mrs. Leicester’s School (1807), a collection of children’s stories and poems, Tales
from Shakespeare (1807), simplified renderings in prose of William Shakespeare’s most famous
plays, and Poetry for Children (1809). Lamb also adapted Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey for
younger readers in The Adventures of Ulysses (1808). Among Lamb’s critical writings, his anthology
Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, Who Lived about the Time of Shakespeare includes selections
from the plays of such Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists as Christopher Marlowe, John
Webster, George Chapman, and Thomas Middleton. Since many of these works were previously
unobtainable to early nineteenth-century readers, Lamb’s compilation was an important reference
source and is supplemented with explanatory notes now considered among Lamb’s most
significant critical work. In a related essay, “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare Considered with
Reference to Their Fitness for Stage Presentation,” Lamb argued that the best qualities of
Shakespeare’s drama can be fully appreciated only through reading: according to Lamb, stage
performances often diminish the play’s meanings, and individual performers often misinterpret
Shakespeare’s intended characterizations. Lamb’s most prominent works were his last: the
collections Elia: Essays Which Have Appeared under That Signature in the “London Magazine” and
The Last Essays of Elia were published in 1823 and 1833, respectively. Featuring sketches in the
familiar essay form—a style popularized by Michel de Montaigne, Robert Burton, and Sir
Thomas Browne—the “Elia” essays are characterized by Lamb’s personal tone, narrative ease,
and wealth of literary allusions. Never didactic, the essays treat ordinary subjects in a nostalgic,
fanciful way by combining humour, pathos, and a sophisticated irony ranging from gentle to
scathing. Among the essays, “Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago” features a schoolboy
reminiscence of Coleridge, while “Confessions of a Drunkard” treats with ambivalence a theme
that punctuated Lamb’s own life. Counted among his most significant writings, Lamb’s discerning
and lively correspondence is collected in The Letters of Charles Lamb (1935).

4.2 Critical Analysis

This essay is about a dream. In this essay all characters are real except the children Alice and
John. From the title we can guess that it’s a dream and reverie, i.e., a day dream. Alice and
John are children of James Elia (Charles Lamb). They ask their father, James Elia, to tell them
about their grandmother. Grandmother’s name is Field who has been acquainted to us by
Lamb as a perfect woman with great qualities. Incidents are real from the life of Lamb. There
is a story related to the house where grandmother Mrs Field was a keeper. It was about the
murder of children by their cruel uncle. Alice and John came to know this story through a
carved writing on a tree which was later brought down by a rich man. After the death of
grandmother, house owner took away her belongings and placed them in his new house
where they looked awkward. When grandmother was alive she used to sleep alone but Elia
was afraid of the souls of infants murdered by uncle as it was thought that house was haunted
by the spirits of those children. Elia had a brother John full of enthusiasm and zeal, who was
loved by everyone specially by their grandmother. on the other hand Elia’s childhood was full
of isolation and he remained stagnant throughout his life. His mind was working fast but

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