. One year course in English and American literature; an introduction to the chief authors in English and American literature, with reading lists and references for further study. vorite reading was in the playsof the Elizabethan dramatists,and he published a volume ofSpecimens of English DramaticPoets, containing choice extractswith brief but admirable com-ments. His chief work, how-ever, is in the two volumescalled Essays of Elia. Thesewere first published in maga-zines, and Lamb signed to themthe name of a clerk in the office£&^f / where he worked. The essays CJs\^y??l/^ ~>S deal with a1
. One year course in English and American literature; an introduction to the chief authors in English and American literature, with reading lists and references for further study. vorite reading was in the playsof the Elizabethan dramatists,and he published a volume ofSpecimens of English DramaticPoets, containing choice extractswith brief but admirable com-ments. His chief work, how-ever, is in the two volumescalled Essays of Elia. Thesewere first published in maga-zines, and Lamb signed to themthe name of a clerk in the office£&^f / where he worked. The essays CJs\^y??l/^ ~>S deal with a11 kinds of topics:^^s there is a complaint of the de- cay of beggars in the city, achapter on ears, a dissertation on roast pig, criticism onactors of the time, and so on. They are short, as short asBacons essays, but entirely different in tone, for Lamb isamong the great humorists. His style is unique. Hisfamiliarity with old writers led him to use their words,so that a modern thought often peeps out from quaint olddress. His sentences often take an unexpected turn,sometimes humorous, sometimes serious where one ex-pected humor. His essays are among the best examples. THOMAS DE QUINCEY 85 we have of what are called personal essays, those inwhich the author reveals himself. We learn his fondnessfor old china, his dislike of Scotchmen, his favorite booksand walks and games. And the personality thus revealedis so charming that he has been called the best beloved ofEnglish writers. Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859), the English opium-eater, was a strange, erratic being. As a boy he ran awayfrom the Manchester GrammarSchool to find Coleridge, whom ^ he so admired that he gave hima good part of his fortune. Hewent to Oxford later, and finallysettled in the Lake region, nearGrasmere. Asked to write thestory of his life for a magazine,he produced the famous Confes-sions of an Opium-Eater. Inthe next twenty years he wrotea great number of articles, chieflyon literature and philosophy
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglishliterature
