ABSTRACT
The essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) was consulted by Walter Wilson when the latter was preparing his biography of Defoe (see No. 16 below). In the life, Wilson made use of the letter quoted here, and also a separate discussion of the ‘secondary’ novels, which Lamb prepared in 1829. In a further letter, dated 24 February 1823, Lamb commented on Roxana. The text of these passages is taken from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, ed. E. V. Lucas (1903–5).
