Their regular Wednesday evening dinners were the gathering place for the best literary minds of the time. Charles Lamb also wrote excellent essays (compiled in a volume titled The Essays of Elia) and tried his hand at poetry and drama. His glittering circle included contemporary poets like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey and Leigh Hunt, the Chinese scholar Thomas Manning, political philosophers like William Godwin and his daughter the famous creator of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and essayists like William Hazlitt. However, far from being a melancholy duo, they led an active and ample social life in the company of some of the literary greats of the Romantic movement of the 19th century.

The pair lived together for life, having gone through immense trauma caused by mental illness and tragedy. Lamb co-authored them with his beloved sister Mary. Tales from Shakespeare was written in 1807 by a young clerk called Charles Lamb in the offices of the East India Company. Gold background for Title on spine, with black design and lettering.This little gem of a book was probably the first introduction to Shakespeare that most readers have had as children. R.' Brown paper over boards,Beautiful drawing on front cover. Owners EXLIBRIS on front end paper, 'Edith L. Back cover stained and spotted, front cover and spine very good. Very good, solid, end papers and pacedown soiled and yellowed. New York, London and Manchester, possiby 1886.

Item #885 George Routledge and Sons, Limited. Also a Cronological Order, Of Shakespear's Dramas,on the authority of Malone, Chalmers, and Knight. Life of Shakespeare, 24 pages of Shakespear biography, information on his life I had not seen in other biography. What really peeked my interest are the added information, at the end of book. Very difficult to obtain good provenance. Gold background for Title on spine, with black design and lettering. Brown paper over boards,Beautiful drawing on front cover. Charles And Mary Lamb Tales From Shakespeare

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb