A letter in this weekend's FT has a reader remembering one of Lamb's essays titled The Superannuated Man in which the author worked as a clerk for the East India Company in London. This rang a bell with me because I remember the same essay from A Book Of English Essays which I got as a class prize from Gad (one of the few achievements from my days at CH) and which I still have in dog-eared condition. In it Lamb seemed to live in constant fear of making a mistake and getting summarily sacked but in the end was rewarded with the thanks of the company and a nice pension.
The letter writer notes that Lamb had a sensation of now "having all holidays, I am as though I had none". He adds that it's ironic that nearly 200 years later, modern working arrangements in many hard-driving companies can elicit the same sensation in full-time employees.
However, in spite of his worries about sacking and penury Lamb seems to have fitted in his writing in what spare time he had. There of several of his essays in this book (which is edited by WE Williams in the then Pelican) plus a couple from Leigh Hunt.
Charles Lamb
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