Charles Dickens Sketches by Boz" foreshadows his novels in its profusion of characters its glimpses of surreal modernity & its limitless fund of pathos & comic invention. This " Penguin Classics" edition is edited with notes & an introduction by Dennis Walder. Published under the pen-name Boz Charles Dickens first book " Sketches by Boz" (1836) heralded an exciting new voice in English literature. This richly varied collection of observation fancy & fiction shows the London he knew so intimately at its best & worst
- its streets theatres inns pawnshops law courts prisons omnibuses & the river Thames
- in honest & visionary descriptions of everyday life & 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 & Scrooge-like bachelors while Dickens powers for social critique are never far from the surface in unflinching depictions of the vast metropolis forgotten citizens from child workers to prostitutes. A startling mixture of humour & pathos these Sketches reveal London as wonderful terrain for an extraordinary young writer. In his introduction Dennis Walder discusses Dickens social commentary his view of London & his imaginative mixing of genres & places the Sketches in the tradition of eighteenth & nineteenth-century reportage. This edition also
Includes:: the original illustrations by George Cruickshank a chronology further reading appendices & notes. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books including " Oliver Twist" " Great Expectations" "A Tale of Two Cities" " David Copperfield" & " The Pickwick Papers" have been adapted for stage & screen & read by millions. If you enjoyed " Sketches by Boz" you might like Dickens " The Pickwick Papers" also available in " Penguin Classics"."