On September 22, 1796, in a fit of madness, Mary stabbed and killed her mother. It is believed that there was a hereditary strain of mental illness in the family and that Mary's illness was precipitated by overwork. She was declared temporarily insane and placed under the guardianship of her brother Charles.

The most famous of these early essays is "The Londoner", in which Lamb famously derides the contemporary fascination with nature and the countryside. In another well-known Reflector essay of 1811, he deemed William Hogarth's images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words.

Using the pen-name 'Elia', Lamb wrote on various historical and topical subjects with nostalgia, warmth and humorous intelligence and his collected Essays of Elia (1823) was a huge success.

Charles Lamb first used the pseudonym Elia for the London Magazine in August 1820. Under this name, he produced a collection of writings that established his standing among the great English columnists. He died in 1820, about a few weeks after Lamb scholars usurped his title.