Importance of February 10th- Charles Lamb’s Birth
Anniversary
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Good morning one and all. Have you ever heard
the names of the famous children story books –“Tales from Shakespeare” and “Essays
of Elia”? These were written by the greatest English writer Charles Lamb. On
account of his birth anniversary I would like to speak a few words about him.
Charles Lamb was an English
author, critic, and minor poet.
He was born on Feb. 10, 1775, in
London. At the age of 7 he entered Christ's Hospital, a free boarding school
for sons of poor but genteel parents. After beginning a lifelong friendship
with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a fellow student, Lamb left school in 1789. In
1792 he was hired as a clerk in the East India Company and worked there for the
next 33 years. Lamb's literary career began in 1796, when he wrote four sonnets on Various Subjects. By 1801 Lamb had begun to
contribute short articles to London newspapers. Lamb had a great association with many famous authors like Coleridge, William
Wordsworth, Robert Southey, William Hazlitt, and Hunt.
Charles Lamb is best known for the
essays he wrote under the name Elia. They were written in the structure of
short stories.. From 1820 to 1825 he contributed a series of essays to the
London Magazine which were immensely popular. Though he wrote under the
pseudonym Elia, these essays are intimate revelations of Lamb's own thoughts,
emotions, and experiences of literature and life. He touches on few disturbing
subjects. He prefers instead to look to the past for a sense of calm,
stability, and changeless. Apart from the wit, humor, and humanity one can
also find a gentle nostalgia and
melancholy in his essays like "Witches and Other Night-Fears," and
"Dream Children"
Lamb’s essays focus on the theme of temperament and consciousness of
man. Employing personal experience in his writing, Lamb uses simple language
that is effectual and that the ordinary man can easily understand and apply to
his life. His humorous and leisurely approach to his writing make the reader
wants more. Lamb’s intention was to enable the average person to internalize
his concept and thus make the essay universal. Widespread truths represent the
greater portion of Lamb’s work. Lamb’s simplistic approach to the natural world
both entertains and sends the reader to another place and time. Lamb breathed
his last on Dec. 27, 1834.
We all know that a writer is immortal,
so as Charles Lamb. He lives forever through his greatest works of English
Literature.
Thank you all
for having given me this wonderful opportunity.
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