Sketches by Boz

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Sketches by Boz is a collection of short pieces published by Charles Dickens in 1836. Dickens' career as a writer of fiction truly began with this collection in 1833, when he started writing humorous sketches for the Monthly Chronicle, using the pen-name "Boz". The first edition was accompanied by illustrations by George Cruikshank.

The sketch "Mr. Minns and his Cousin" (originally titled "A Dinner at Poplar Walk") was the first piece of fiction that Dickens ever had published.

[edit] Contents

The contents of Sketches by Boz are:

• 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
• Thoughts about people
  • 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 Tparkins
  • 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

[edit] Quotes

• A smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing. (Dickens' comment on women's education in his day) -Sentiment.

[edit] External links

Online editions

• Sketches by Boz, available freely at Project Gutenberg
• Sketches by Boz - Easy to read HTML
• Sketches by Boz - Large Print HTML