Mary Lamb

The Devil Kissed Her: The Story of Mary Lamb by Kathy Watson covers a lot of territory. Not only do you learn about Mary Lamb, co-author of Tales from Shakespeare, but also about how mental illness in the late 1700's to early 1800's was dealt with.

When I was reading this book I also read an article in the Wall Street Journal by Nassir Ghaemi a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the director of the Mood Disorders program at Tufts Medical Center. Ghaemi's article discusses why, in times of crisis, those who are mentally ill may become the greatest leaders. He sites two traits of the mentally ill that may be the reason for this. Mental illnesses, such as depression, have been shown to "encourage traits of both realism and empathy".

In spite of the fact that she murdered her mother, that is exactly what struck me about Mary Lamb. Both empathy and gentleness show in her writing. This was not typical of children's stories during that period of time. In Mary's group of stories titled Mrs. Leicester's School, she has a story titled "The Sailor Uncle" from which this quote is taken:

"let it be a lesson to you to be as kind as possible to those you love; remember, when they are gone from you, you will never think you had been kind enough."

Mary also demonstrated her ability to see the world more realistically. Watson points out that Mary probably wouldn't have considered herself a feminist, but she saw the need for girls to be trained for jobs in which they could support themselves if they did not marry. Mary wrote:

 "The parents of female children, who were known to be destined from their birth to maintain themselves through the whole course of their lives with like certainty as their sons are, would feel it a duty incumbent on themselves to strengthen the minds, and even the bodily constitutions of their girls...by an education which...might enable them to follow some occupation..."

As a young woman, Mary was actually trained to sew the mantua, but she was not well suited to this business. It paid low wages, had long hours and tended to ruin a woman's eyesight. It also appears that Mary was much to intelligent to settle for this. Mary was lucky in that she was able to earn some money through her writing and her brother Charles was devoted to caring for her. As Watson points out:

"What moves us in the lives of Mary and Charles Lamb is the hard work they both put into not being defeated by the painful circumstances of their lives."

Isn't this a good lesson for us all?