Sketches by Boz

Charles Dickens, Dennis Walder, George Cruikshank , Dennis Walder

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English

Penguin
26 October 1995

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

In his introduction, Dennis Walder discusses Dickens's social commentary and view of London, and places the Sketches in the tradition of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reportage.

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.

By: Charles Dickens
Illustrated by: George Cruikshank
Notes by: Dennis Walder
Introduction by: Dennis Walder
Edited by: Dennis Walder
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 463g
ISBN: 9780140433456
ISBN 10: 0140433457
Pages: 688
Publication Date: 26 October 1995
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

Reviews for Sketches by Boz

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.