Scholarship on Charles Lamb typically presents his essays as
responses to personal tragedy or as idealistic fancies detached
from history, and perpetuates romantic conventions by unfavorably
comparing the minor writer to Coleridge. This article intervenes
in this trend by reading Lamb's "Elia" essays as emulations
of his East India House employment, which adopt its modes of
mechanical reproduction and professional promotion in order to
elevate Lamb's literary output to that of Coleridge. Porcelain is
the key industrial commodity upon which Lamb's analogy hinges.
Consequently, this reading centers upon the essay, "Old China,"
to unveil the triumphal imperialism in Lamb's writing.