Sketches by Boz

Sketches by Boz is a delightful collection of vignettes and stories which Charles Dickens first published in various newspapers and magazines, and then published in book form in 1836. All the elements of later Dickens are already on display here, from deep pathos to occasionally overdone bathos, to scathingly sarcastic humor, to gentle and affectionate spoof. Some of the stories are really extremely funny, and wildly entertaining. Perhaps not a book to be read straight through, but savored in bits, like a good box of chocolates. The Penguin Classics edition has excellent notes and all the original George Cruikshank illustrations. For a writer's Opus 1, this is quite an accomplishment. I found it very enjoyable.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is the greatest English novelist. We all know and love his novels. However, most readers do not read "Sketches by Boz" which is an early compilation of articles the budding author penned for various newspapers and journals. These sketches were written while Dickens was a parliamentary reporter in his early 20s. Wnence does the name "Boz" derive? As a young lad Dickens gave his younger brother Augustus the nickname "Moses" in honor of a character in Oliver Goldsmith;'s classic novel "The Vicar of Wakefield." Young Augustus could not pronounce "Moses" correctly calling himself "Boz". Dickens decided this would be a good name to apply to himself as he submitted the anonymous humorous sketches he produced in profusion in the 1830s. We sometimes foget that Dickens was already an author prior to the ascension of Queen Victoria in 1837. The Penguin edition divides the lengthy sketches into four sections: "Sketches from our Parish:; :Scenes of London"; "Characters" and the best section "Tales" which are humorous short stories. The book is illustrated by George Cruikshank a good friend of the author and along with Phiz one of Dickens best illustrators. The various tales are of uneven quality. Do not read this book if you are seeking the complexity of a "Bleak House": "Little Dorrit" or "Our Mutual Friend." Do peruse them if you enjoy succinctly and well observed tales and sketches of what it was like to live in London in the 1830s as the city was becoming a vast metropolis filled with interesting characters. I loved Dickens sketches of what a London street scene was like in the bustle of early morning. His stories of life in the theatre were excellent as was his tour of Newgate prison . If you have not read Dickens I suggest you begin with "The Pickwick Papers" and this apprentice work. Once you enter the magical, dangerous, hilarious wonderful world of Charles Dickens you will apply for citizenship papers in Mr. Dickens literary universe!

In bookstores and libraries, literary classics are a dime a dozen. There are so many different editions available of each that the problem becomes one not of finding a good read but of selecting the edition of it that's right for you. Charles Dickens is perhaps the most popular of the past masters. All his books are enormously entertaining, whether he's writing about the tragedies of this world or its travesties. His eye for the ludicrous is faultless; his representation of it in print is perfection. He never fails to paint on the canvass in our mind, with a few simple strokes, a comic character that resembles someone we've met somewhere, sometime in our lives. His characters are so real that he needs to do nothing more than describe their appearance briefly and then let them speak for themselves. They speak with all the dignity and importance we all feel in ourselves, yet they unwittingly disclose for the reader all the foibles we all possess ... and mistakenly think known only to ourselves. Likewise, when introducing tragic characters, Dickens prefers to offer brief but unerringly accurate descriptions of their build, demeanor, and dress, and then allow their own words and actions to speak for themselves. His creations elicit mirth and misery in us without fail as Dickens masterfully plucks the strings of our hearts.Unlike most writers, Dickens is equally at home in both the short story and the full-length novel format. This is because his novels were serialized in periodicals in their first publications. Only later were they edited for book form. "Sketches by Boz" is an offering of Dickens's first attempts at writing for a living. It consists of 56 passages, most of which can be read in a single sitting of less than half an hour. These are divided into four sections: "Our Parish", "Scenes", "Characters", and "Tales". Of these, only the last contains fiction. The 44 nonfiction accounts are just as entertaining as their made-up brothers. In fact, I found them even more fun to read at times. Dickens only thinly disguised the identities of his victims while lampooning them, and as editor Dennis Walder so rightly points out, many of these descriptions would surely result in lawsuits for libel if they were published about public figures today.This was my first experience reading a Penguin Classics edition of Dickens, and I was extremely pleased with it. The editor introduced "Sketches" with a few notes of academic and historical interest, a particular one of which I found to be of great interest as it finally answered a question I'd had for half my life: namely, where Dickens had acquired his nickname of Boz. But more important for today's reader of Dickens is the "Notes" section at the back of the book in which Mr. Walder defines Dickensian slang and explains the author's references to people, events, and places of early nineteenth century London. Much of Dickens's wit is lost on today's reader without such disclosures.One of m