This book makes the case for a re-placing of Lamb as reader, writer and friend in the midst of the lively political and literary scene of the 1790s. Reading his little-known early works alongside others by the likes of Coleridge and Wordsworth, it allows a revealing insight into the creative dynamics of early Romanticism.

List of Abbreviations Introduction: Placing Lamb PART I: IDEALISING FRIENDSHIP 'Frendotatoi meta frendous': Constructing Friendship in the 1790s  Rewritings of Friendship, 1796-1797 PART II: DOUBTING FRIENDSHIP The 'Day of Horrors', 1796 'Cold, cold, cold': Loneliness and Reproach Blank Verse and Fears in Solitude PART III: RECONSTRUCTING FRIENDSHIP A Text of Friendship: Rosamund Gray Sympathy, Allusion and Experiment in John Woodvil The Urban Romantic: Lamb's Landscapes of Affection  Index

Shortlisted for the CCUE Book Prize 2010 'Charles Lamb, Coleridge and Wordsworth contributes a serious revaluation of Lamb's reputation, and deals comprehensively and deftly with the important field of Romantic friendship and networks in their psychological and political aspects. Often using colourful anecdotes to illuminate more general analysis, Felicity James's book is a mature and elegant work which makes a genuine contribution to Romantic scholarship.' - R. S. White, Professor of English and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia 'Charles Lamb, Coleridge and Wordsworth is a great achievement. It is a paean to the profitable complexity of friendship in a time when talk among friends could potentially result in charges of sedition, or in the mass-production of verse with which we are still familiar.' - John Regan, University of Cambridge 'This outstanding book approaches 'reading friendship in the 1790s' by reading Charles Lamb alongside his friends and fellow-writers... James traces the intertwined friendships and examines their turning points and crises in a series of consistently superb close readings...admirable and inspiring...' - Alison Hickey, Review of English Studies