Dream-Child: A Life of Charles Lamb

An in-depth look into the life of Romantic essayist Charles Lamb and the legacy of his work

A pioneer of urban Romanticism, essayist Charles Lamb (1775-1834) found inspiration in London's markets, theaters, prostitutes, and bookshops. He prized the city's literary scene, too, where he was a star wit. He counted among his admirers Mary Shelley, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His friends valued in his conversation what distinguished his writing style: a highly original blend of irony, whimsy, and melancholy.

Eric G. Wilson captures Lamb's strange charm in this meticulously researched and engagingly written biography. He demonstrates how Lamb's humor helped him cope with a life-defining tragedy: in a fit of madness, his sister Mary murdered their mother. Arranging to care for her himself, Lamb saved her from the gallows. Delightful when sane, Mary became Charles's muse, and she collaborated with him on children's books. In exploring Mary's presence in Charles's darkly comical essays, Wilson also shows how Lamb reverberates in today's experimental literature.

Author: Eric G. Wilson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 01/04/2022
Pages: 544
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.00lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.60w x 1.60d
ISBN13: 9780300230802
ISBN10: 030023080X
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures
- Literary Criticism | Modern | 18th Century
- Literary Criticism | Gothic & Romance

About the Author
Eric G. Wilson is Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University. He is the author of several books, including Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck and Against Happiness.