8vo. [4], 341pp, [1]. Without half-title. Later blind-ruled half-calf, marbled paper boards, with contrasting gilt-tooled red morocco lettering-piece to spine. Marbled endpapers, A.E.G. Very lightly rubbed and scored. With a tipped-in contemporary newspaper clipping, announcing the work's publication, to verso of FFEP. Browning and spotting to terminal and initial leaves.

The first edition, second issue of the collected essays of Charles Lamb (1775-1834); the essays had initially appeared in John Scott's London Magazine between 1820 and 1825 under the pseudonym 'Elia'. Lamb's sketches, drawing in a semi-autobiographical manner from his own experiences and correspondence, utilised a conversational and personable dramatic persona, allowing for a more naive and whimsical take on contemporary events. A second series, Last Essays of Elia, appeared in 1833.