Sketches by Boz

by Charles Dickens, Dennis Walder (Editor), George Cruikshank (Illustrator), Dennis Walder (Introduction)

Overview

'Sets out the London of the 1830s before you, streets, people, pleasures, low life, prisons' Claire Tomalin

Charles Dickens's first published book, Sketches by Boz is a funny and touching collection of observation, fancy and fiction showing the London he knew in all its complexity - its streets, theatres, inns, pawnshops, law courts, prisons and, of course, the river Thames. His descriptions of everyday life and people seem to anticipate characters from his great novels - garrulous matrons, vulgar young clerks, Scrooge-like bachelors - while his powers of social critique shine in his unflinching depictions of the city's forgotten citizens, from child workers to prostitutes. This edition includes the original illustrations by George Cruikshank.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Dennis Walder

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141921921
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	03/30/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	688
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-70) was a political reporter and journalist whose popularity was established by the phenomenally successful Pickwick Papers (1836-7). His novels captured and held the public imagination over a period of more than thirty years.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Table of Contents

• Our parish
  • The Beadle. The Parish Engine. The Schoolmaster.
  • The Curate. The Old Lady. The Half-pay Captain
  • The Four Sisters
  • The Election for Beadle
  • The Broker's Man
  • The Ladies' Societies
  • Our Next-door Neighbour
• Scenes
  • The Streets – morning
  • The Streets – night
  • Shops and their Tenants
  • Scotland Yard
  • Seven Dials
  • Meditations in Monmouth-Street
  • Hackney-coach Stands
  • Doctors' Commons
  • London Recreations
  • The River
  • Astley's
  • Greenwich Fair
  • Private Theatres
  • Vauxhall Gardens by Day
  • Early Coaches
  • Omnibuses
  • The Last Cab-driver, and the First Omnibus cad
  • A Parliamentary Sketch
  • Public Dinners
  • The First of May
  • Brokers' and Marine-store Shops
  • Gin-shops
  • The Pawnbroker's Shop
  • Criminal Courts
  • A Visit to Newgate
• Characters
  • Thoughts about People
  • A Christmas Dinner
  • The New Year
  • Miss Evans and the Eagle
  • The Parlour Orator
  • The Hospital Patient
  • The Misplaced attachment of Mr. John Dounce
  • The Mistaken Milliner. A Tale of Ambition
  • The Dancing Academy
  • Shabby-Genteel People
  • Making a Night of It
  • The Prisoners' Van
• Tales
  • The Boarding-house
    • Chapter the first
    • Chapter the second
  • Mr. Minns and his Cousin
  • Sentiment
  • The Tuggses at Ramsgate
  • Horatio Sparkins
  • The Black Veil
  • The Steam Excursion
  • The Great Winglebury Duel
  • Mrs. Joseph Porter
  • A Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle
    • Chapter the first
    • Chapter the second
  • The Bloomsbury Christening
  • The Drunkard's death

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Walter Bagehot once remarked, Dickens wrote about London "like a special correspondent for posterity".

"The first sprightly runnings of his genius are undoubtedly here," wrote Dickens’s friend and biographer John Forster.

Editorial Reviews

Walter Bagehot once remarked, Dickens wrote about London "like a special correspondent for posterity".

"The first sprightly runnings of his genius are undoubtedly here," wrote Dickens’s friend and biographer John Forster.

From the Publisher