This group of books features three books by Charles Lamb. One volume is titled "The Essays Of Elia. A New Edition, With A Dedication And Preface Hitherto Unpublished", published in London by Edward Moxon in 1867, and the other two are a smaller-sized set that have the same title and were published in London by David Stott in 1889. Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834) was an English essayist and poet best known for his "Essays of Elia" and for the children's book "Tales from Shakespeare", co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb. Friends with such literary luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Lamb was at the centre of a major literary circle in England. Both Charles and his sister Mary had a period of mental illness; in 1795, they spent time in a mental facility after Mary stabbed their mother to death. Charles took care of Mary after refusing his brother's suggestion that they have her committed to a public lunatic asylum. Lamb used a large part of his meagre income to keep his sister in a private "madhouse" in Islington, and he succeeded in obtaining his sister's release from what otherwise would have been lifelong imprisonment. There was no legal status of "insanity" at the time, but the jury returned the verdict of "lunacy", which was how she was freed from the charge of willful murder, on the condition that Charles take personal responsibility for her safekeeping. Eventually she recovered enough for both of them to live an active and rich social life. His collected essays, under the title "Essays of Elia", were published in 1823; "Elia" was the pen name Lamb used as a contributor to The London Magazine. The 1867 edition has five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt lettering and elaborate gilt tooling on the spine, a full and best crushed French levant cover with double gilt-fillet borders and a large diamond shape that surrounds a gilt lyre in the center, marbled endpapers, a pencilled note on the first blank endpaper which reads "Complete Both Series", a frontis portrait of Charles Lamb, the title page, four pages of Contents, the text is 426 pages long, and all the edges are gilt. The 1889 set is 1/2 bound, with beige leather and gilt lettering on the spines, marbled boards with "The Stott Library" on the front covers, decorated endpapers, an illustrated frontis of Lamb's cottage, one page of Contents and 388 pages of text in Volume 1, the second volume has an illustrated frontis of the author's tombstone, one page of Contents, and 328 pages of text. The 1867 edition measures 6 3/4 x 4 3/8 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages and is in very good condition. The gilt edges are bright, there's light rubbing at the heel and crown of the spine and along the top edge of the front covers, rubbing at the tips, slight browning on the dedication page, and a leather bookmark which has left a shadow on page 187, and that's it. The small set from 1889 measures 4 5/8 x 3 1/2 in. wide and have tight bindings and clean pages, with occasional spots at the edges and on the pages near the front and end of each book, the spines have very light bumps at top and bottom and have faded a bit, and specs of rubbing at the tips, and that's pretty much it for this set, and the three books comprise the key pieces for Charles Lamb's life. #75 #1701