Question- What are the salient features of Lamb's prose-style?

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Discuss Lamb's prose-style.

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Attempt an essay on Lamb's prose-style.

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The style of Lamb is unique and undefinable, of no one else." Hugh Walker, "is the saying that style of the man is more true than of Lamb". The charm of his style is the charm of his personality. It is expression of his wide and varied reading.

The characteristic trait of his style is that it can not be seperated from his humour. His humour, 'Whim whoms as he called them as quaint and its best expression is to be found in quaint words. antique phrases and for fetched comparisons. Even the eminent writers like Hazlitt with his prilliancy.. Dequincey with his harmony, Macculay with his vigour or Goldsmith with his purity could not have conveyed the meaning done by Lamb. Something of the poetic as well as grotesque was also characteristic with Lamb. Though Lamb was not a poet but a poetic atmosphere pervades all his writing and even in the most humorous essay the skilful management of the poetic element is brought under shape of literary allusion.

His style is certainly quaint in a true sense for that much abused word. It wears the strangeness we associate with something old fashioned. It contains an element of the fantastic which get is not affectation. His style was deliberately manipulated by himself. It was the result of a humorous intution. His style is full of surprises because the mood continualy varies creating or suggesting its own style and calling into play some recollection of this or that writer of the older world.

Another important feature of Lamb's style is his extensive and over- abundant use of allusions and quotations. The use of quotations says Lanker, 'is only justifiable when the quotation adopts itself to the context and does not strike the reader with any sense of incongruity. "Lamb, who, lived among books, makes perhaps a freer use of quotations then does any other writer of prose. Lamb quotes from his old favourite writers and at times quotes from his own poems 'Sometimes the quotations are given separately but sometimes the borrowed words and phrases are woven into the very texture of his sentences, and glitter like the threads of gold. In this context the quotations look more appropriate, they are in their original sense. For instance how he adapts the following quotation from Shakespeare to his new context:

"Golden lads and lasses must
As chimney sweepers, come to dust."

Similarly his style abounds, in allusions to Biblical events and character. In 'Christ's Hospital' alone there are numerous allusions. Other examples, such as:

"His minerves is born in Panoply"
"A Lazarus at your door,"

Lamb's style is inseparable from his humour, of which it is the expression. His whims and whams' as he called them found their best expression in the quint words, antique phrases and multiplied comparison. He laughed in order to save himself from weeping but he could not prevent his mind from passing at times to the sadder aspects of life. So his humour is mixed with pathos,

His style is charming owing to its poetic glow. His style embodies that colour and warmth distinguishes him from the prose writers of the preceding century. The spirit which guides him in his writings is the spirit of poetry. Lamb was endowed with that creative energy and imagination which engendered great poetry through ages. So his prose is highly poetic and has a unique charm unknown as yet to English prose. He began his career as a poet but in it his prose works that his poetic genius is at its best.

To conclude, Lamb's style abounds in mannerism and archaisms. He even said in his whimsical way, that he wrote neither for the present nor the future, but for the antiquity. So his style may appear a little out of place in modern times when there is a craze for straight writing, but Lamb has a charm of his own and his style is eminently suited for the matter at command, Lamb's style denies definition and defies analysis. Regarding his style, a critic pays a glowing tribute to Lamb," Elia's style is the only thing in English prose that can be called absolutely perfect."

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