Barry Cornwall's memoir of Charles Lamb reveals a life outwardly modest yet inwardly heroic, shaped above all by one enduring devotion: his lifelong care for his mentally ill sister, Mary. That steadfast responsibility, carried through fear, poverty, and sacrifice, stands at the center of Lamb's moral character, even as his mind turned naturally toward books, conversation, and reflective thought. Born in the Inner Temple to a shy clerk's family, Lamb was a grave, delicate child at Christ's Hospital, where hardship, discipline, and an early friendship with Coleridge helped form his literary destiny. From this difficult beginning grew a writer of rare English wit, tenderness, and independence. Lamb loved old books, old buildings, Shakespeare and the neglected dramatists, and the honest presence of real people over fashion, abstraction, or pretension. His prose in Elia and his letters is praised for grace, precision, and moral warmth. Physically slight and often burdened by sorrow, he moved through London with quiet resilience, welcoming friends to simple suppers, smoking for comfort, and living by the sustaining force of affection, memory, and humane feeling. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.