Spellbinding London: Charles Lamb's "Elia" and the Old Country House

In addressing the same question to explain his approach to reading Elia, Peter J. Manning acknowledges the great "gain in historical specificity and vitality" made from studies of the essays as periodical texts.3 Such studies, notably by Mark Schoenfield and Mark Parker, counterbalance, su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inStudies in romanticism Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 121 - 138
Main Author Hull, Simon P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston The Graduate School, Boston University 01.04.2009
Johns Hopkins University Press
Subjects
Ballads
Childhood
Children
Cities
Commodities
Essays
Folktales
Homes
Houses
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)
Literary criticism
Mansions
Psychology
Tapestry
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Summary:In addressing the same question to explain his approach to reading Elia, Peter J. Manning acknowledges the great "gain in historical specificity and vitality" made from studies of the essays as periodical texts.3 Such studies, notably by Mark Schoenfield and Mark Parker, counterbalance, suggests Manning, the bias toward formal and autobiographical readings in those (usually previous) studies that alternatively take the collected essays (from Essays [1823] and Last Essays [1833]) as their text.4 However, Manning constructs his own reading from the opposite problem, created as it is, he proposes, by the above focus on historical specificity: that "resituating Lamb within the pages of the London Magazine risks circumscribing his effects in the exact proportion that one recovers their original richness" (137). [...] those which can be described as Lamb's characteristic qualities - his whimsicaUty and escapism - ironically define themselves through, and not in resistance to, the historical moment.
ISSN:0039-3762
2330-118X