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Charles Dickens's first published book, "Sketches by Boz" (1836) heralded an exciting new voice in English literature. This richly varied collection of observation, fancy and fiction shows the London he knew so intimately at its best and worst - its streets, theatres, inns, pawnshops, law courts, prisons, omnibuses and the river Thames - in honest and visionary descriptions of everyday life and people.
Through pen portraits that often anticipate characters from his great novels, we see the condemned man in his prison cell, garrulous matrons, vulgar young clerks and Scrooge-like bachelors, while Dickens's powers for social critique are never far from the surface, in unflinching depictions of the vast metropolis's forgotten citizens, from child workers to prostitutes.
A startling mixture of humour and pathos, these Sketches reveal London as wonderful terrain for an extraordinary young writer. "Sketches" is a remarkable achievement, and looks towards Dickens's giant novels in its profusion of characters, its glimpses of surreal modernity and its limitless fund of pathos and comic invention.
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.
| List of Illustrations | |
| Introduction | |
| Acknowledgements | |
| A Dickens Chronology | |
| A Note on the Text and Illustrations | |
| Suggested Further Reading | |
| Sketches by Boz | p. 1 |
| Appendix A: The First Publication of the Sketches in Periodical, Volume and Number Form | p. 567 |
| Appendix B: Descriptive Headings, 1868 Charles Dickens Edition | p. 574 |
| Notes | p. 583 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780140433456
ISBN-10: 0140433457
Series: Penguin Classics
Audience:
General
For Ages: 18+ years old
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 688
Published: February 1996
Dimensions (cm): 19.8 x 12.9
x 2.9
Weight (kg): 0.469
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