book review

The book review for The Essays of Elia Number of pages: 340 First published: 1823 Publisher: HardPress 2018.4.23 Below is a review of The Essays of Elia, which is the most prominent work of Carles Lamb. The essays in the collection first began appearing in The London Magazine in 1820 and continued to 1825. Choosing daily life as his perspective, Lamb expresses his outlook on life with a pen name—— Elia. The topic of essays well blends in the unique experiences of Lamb, along with the deep humanitarian atmosphere, known as an antidote to mental scars. The whole book is composed of 6 chapters, referring to 6 different experiences of the writer and, to some extent, unveiling the deep insight of the writer, like his preference, his personal attitudes towards life and his relationship network. Speaking of the first chapter, Old China, which is an representative character of this book. —— the interesting layout ,making the delivery of writer’s emotion more natural. The story begins with the description of old china, but the talks given by his sister takes up most of the length. Elia, the writer, holds a distinctive standpoint with his sister——He believes that it is their decent life now that contributes to the happiness, while his sister attaches more importance on the past, when both of them lived in a miserable poor life, having to save money from every small things (It should be noticed that his sister in real life had severe mental disorder and ended up killing his mother). Such layout remind the readers to think the hind meaning of Old china——What’s the relationship of old china and the talk between the writer and his sister. A reasonable explanation is that the old china used to be expensive for the westers to enjoy, so it represents for a good condition of the writer’s now. And in the next chapter, Mackery End in Hertordshire, the writer introduces hid housekeeper, Bridget Elia, who companies Elia through many years and form a thick friendship with Elia. Then, the writer use the almost same method as chapter one, starting with what the title of the chapter says about the New year’s Eve and expend such topic to his personal feelings and memories for old times. The chapter 4, which is Lamb’s vacation on Oxford, introduces the Oxford university and one of his friends working in there, on whom, the writer harbors an high comment for his calmness and sinless peace. In the essay, The old and the New schoolmaster, the writer encountered an gentleman, who was a modern schoolmaster, and that meet reminded him of his own schoolmaster’s wife, Anna, a woman took great care of Lamb when he was in school. The last essay, named The old Margate hoy, records the writer’s bias on the coastal landscapes, in which he clearly points out that” I would exchange these sea-gulls for swans, and scud a swallow for ever about the banks of Thamesis.” It’s not hard to infer from the essay that the real reason behind such preference is Lamb’s failure of coming back to hometown, living an unsatisfied life in a strange city. There is no clear mind map of this book, most of it deliver the writer’s own feelings, which is always heartbroken or frustrated. His sadness floats on the whole book, together with some refreshing viewpoints of life indirectly shown in the past experience of the writer. There is an psycological theory suggests that the people who continuously recall their past must be disappointed about their life now. I , personally think, there is an overlap between this theory and Lamb’s work.