Charles Lamb achieved lasting fame as a writer during the years 1820-1825, when he captivated the discerning English reading public with his personal essays in the London Magazine, collected as Essays of Elia (1823) and The Last Essays of Elia (1833). Known for their charm, humor, and perception, and laced with idiosyncrasies, these essays appear to be modest in scope, but their soundings are deep, and their ripples extend to embrace much of human life--particularly the life of the imagination. Lamb is increasingly becoming known, too, for his critical writings. Lamb as Critic (1980) gathers his criticism from all sources, including letters. A new edition of his entertaining letters is also underway. While Lamb was an occasional journalist, a playwright (of small success), a writer for children, and a poet, it is his prose which has endured. He early realized that poetry was not his vocation; his best poetry was written...