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Sketches by Boz
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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English short story writer, dramatist, essayist, and the most popular novelist to come from the Victorian era. He created some of the most iconic characters and stories in English literature, including Mr. Pickwick from "The Pickwick Papers", Ebenezer Scrooge from "A Christmas Carol", David Copperfield, and Pip from "Great Expectations", to name a few. Dickens' began by writing serials for magazines, and from 1833-1836 he used the pseudonym Boz, taken from a childhood nickname for his younger brother. "Sketches by Boz" contains 56 stories and, like most of Dickens' work, vividly portrayed the lives of Londoners around him in an effort to illustrate social injustices and promote reform. Unlike less successful writers of the time who divided whole works into serialized episodes, Dickens often gauged public reaction to each installment, allowing himself to tailor the plot accordingly. This collection is divided into four sections: "The Parish," "Scenes," "Characters," and "Tales."
Author
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.
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Reviews for Sketches by Boz
Rating: 3.8301886603773587 out of 5 stars
4/5
106 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 1st of Dickens' 24 important works, published in 1837 after being variously printed in the previous years, these are the works that made a name for Dickens (even if the name was "Boz"! - which, incidentally, is pronounced "Boze"). They are very interesting, and sometimes hilariously detailed in their stories of cultural mores in the early 19th century. At the same time, the quality varies and they are written for an audience with very different reading expectations, some of which would be shaped and moulded by Dickens himself over the next 40 years. Interesting to read for Dickens fans, and a good way to get in the sense of his first "real" book, The Pickwick Papers but newcomers should skip this and move straight on to Oliver Twist or something similar.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some of the earliest published work of Dickens, mixed with a few pieces he added when the pieces were collected for the first time in book form. Some vintage Dickens in spots, foreshadowing later characters. The second half, which is more fiction than journalism, drags a bit with repeated themes, usually of bachelors getting done for.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I had read a number of these before but had never read Sketches by Boz in its entirety. Dickens first book, published when he was twenty-four and already on his third or fourth career, contains his earliest writings, ranging from semi-fictional sketches to a series of "tales" that range from farce to melodramatic tragedy. They contain much of what one would find throughout his career: walking through the streets of London, middle-class families, clerks, comedy, satire of pretension, tragedy, farce, a preoccupation with prisons, etc. Many of the pieces are excellent, virtually none of them are bad or even seem particularly immature, but for most people Sketches is fairly superseded by the novels which take many of the same types of characters and scenes and embed them in a much more compelling and readable format. That said, Sketches was very enjoyable and I would expect to read many of the individual pieces in it again.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Funny and interesting book about life in London in the early nineteenth century. Mostly humourous sketches with some darker sentimental ones within. Shows Dickens spreading his wings as a writer fortelling the heights to which he would achieve.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Dickens. The reader gets Dickens' characters and descriptive power with a minimum of his ripe sentimentality. A win/win. Good place to start for those new to the author or those that say they don't like Dickens. For those familar with the author's body of work the reader will find the germ of future novels in this early work. The last piece, "A Drunkard's Death", is outstanding.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A mixed bag of sketches, with some very funny and moving ones, and a few that were mediocre and forgettable. Some of the best were redolent of Dickens's later distinctive style, though these were his earliest published works, first appearing in magazines between 1833-36. The first seven sketches, grouped under the title The Parish, were good and funny, especially The Election for Beadle and The Four Sisters. The sections headed Scenes and Characters were rather more variable, though as ever Dickens excels when covering the plight of the poor and wretched, for example in Gin-Shops, A Visit to Newgate and The Prisoners' Van. A Christmas Dinner should become a seasonal favourite. The sketches detailing the coming in of the omnibus were very good as well. The latter set of Tales were varied, with a few dull ones, but also some very funny ones, esp The Boarding House, Mr Minns and his Cousin (Dickens's first published piece as A Dinner at Poplar Walk), Horatio Sparkins and The Bloomsbury Christening. The Black Veil and The Drunkard's Death were very haunting. The illustrations by George Cruikshank were marvellous, better than those by Phiz in my view, with a Hogarthian sort of feel about them. 4/5
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In these early works you can find hints of Dickens' later novels, characters, and themes. The wry humor is also reminiscent of Twain with a British rather than American dialect.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Collection of short stories - or "sketches" - about everyday life in London. They range from the very humorous to the tragic.
I experimented with using Libravox with this. On the plus side - a free, complete, audio copy of the book. On the down side, there was a HUGE difference in the quality of readers from chapter to chapter. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I had read a number of these before but had never read Sketches by Boz in its entirety. Dickens first book, published when he was twenty-four and already on his third or fourth career, contains his earliest writings, ranging from semi-fictional sketches to a series of "tales" that range from farce to melodramatic tragedy. They contain much of what one would find throughout his career: walking through the streets of London, middle-class families, clerks, comedy, satire of pretension, tragedy, farce, a preoccupation with prisons, etc. Many of the pieces are excellent, virtually none of them are bad or even seem particularly immature, but for most people Sketches is fairly superseded by the novels which take many of the same types of characters and scenes and embed them in a much more compelling and readable format. That said, Sketches was very enjoyable and I would expect to read many of the individual pieces in it again.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5"Sketches by Boz" contains a smattering of descriptive accounts of people and places around 19th-century London, alongside fictional stories set in the same place and time. Originally published in serial form, it was later gathered in two volumes as a book, and is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Dickens' first novel. In these writings, you can see the beginnings of an emergent literary talent, but definitely only the beginnings. Obsessive enthusiasts may be able to pinpoint particular characters and events that were later developed further in the author's other novels, but the average modern-day reader will struggle with a great deal of outdated vocabulary and very little in the way of memorable plot development. I found it intriguing to read some of the descriptions of London, and I imagine that if I ever travel there, it might be interesting to visit those places now with the sketches as a sort of time-travel tour guide in my hand. However, this is definitely a book best read, if you are going to tackle it, the way it was originally published: one small piece at a time. It took me five and a half months to finish it, and I felt no relief whatsoever upon having done so. Unless you're a professor of 19th century literature, this is probably not a keeper. And unless you're one of the most determined readers of classics on the planet, it may not even merit your picking it up in the first place.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sketchy - but decent overall.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Excellent sketches, but I just had a hard time getting into them. I need a plot. So I much preferred the tales that were included later on in the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some of Dickens' earliest published writings; there are hints here of what's to come in these vignettes, sketches, and short tales, but I can't say I found the whole collection particularly compelling.
Book preview
Sketches by Boz - Charles Dickens
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