Book Description

Excerpt from The Life and Works of Charles Lamb, Vol. 5 of 12 They are here restored, as nearly as possible in the order of their composition. Again, after Lamb's death his literary executors - who had better rea son than we can have for knowing which of the fugitive verses written between 1830 and his death in 1834 Lamb most valued - added in the subse quent editions of his writings some half a dozen pieces that had appeared in newspapers and jour nals. These have been accordingly retained in the present edition. But other occasional verses - a few translations, epilogues and prologues, epigrams and political squibs, which have been of late years care fully gleaned by editors of Lamb, are not here ih cluded, and the volume makes no claim, in their sense of the word, to possess the merit of complete ness. Without suggesting or believing that even the lightest trifles of a humorist like Lamb are not worthy of preservation, I yet cherish a strong opinion that when a writer has himself chosen for the people of his best, that best should be at least kept separate from matter of less worth. Acting on the same principle, I have left for a concluding volume (should it be called for) those slighter prose essays and jaw d'esprz't which have been collected of late years, and entitled not, I think, very felici tously, Eliana. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.