Charles and Mary Lamb · AuthorAuthor
Charles and Mary Lamb
English brother and sister writers, authors of Tales from Shakespeare
About Charles and Mary Lamb
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) and his elder sister Mary Lamb (1764–1847) grew up in the Inner Temple in London, where their father served a lawyer. Charles was educated at Christ's Hospital, where he met Coleridge, and worked for more than thirty years as a clerk in the East India House; he is best remembered for the Essays of Elia. In 1796 Mary, in an acute attack of mental illness, fatally stabbed their mother, and Charles took her into his lifelong care, living with her through her recurring illnesses. Together they wrote books for William Godwin's Juvenile Library, including Tales from Shakespeare and Mrs. Leicester's School.
On this site
Tales from ShakespeareCharles and Mary Lamb
1807 · 19th Century · Short Stories
Tales from Shakespeare retells twenty of Shakespeare's plays as prose stories for children. A short preface explains the method: the authors keep Shakespeare's own words wherever they can, avoid words that came into English after his time, and hope the tales will send young readers on to the plays themselves when they are older.