Sketches by Boz and other early papers, 1833-39 (The Dent uniform edition of Dickens' journalism) - Hardcover

Charles Dickens

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0460860763 ISBN 13: 9780460860765

Publisher: J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd, 1994

Synopsis

London in the 1830s was undergoing great changes. In the streets old hackney coaches jostled with new omnibuses, night watchmen gave way to the new police, the poor crowded into inner-city slums, and the middle classes colonized genteel new suburbs.
This was young Dickens's city, and he reported it all - the gin palaces, pleasure gardens, streets, shops, prisons, and law courts - as though he were, in Walter Bagehot's words, "a special correspondent for posterity." It was as a journalist that he first made his mark. His very first book, published when he was only twenty-four, was a collection of sketches that had first appeared in newspapers and magazines written under the pen name "Boz." Sketches by Boz was an instant bestseller.
Dickens's knowledge of London was "extensive and peculiar" - like Sam Weller's in Pickwick Papers. "He knew it all, from Bow to Brentford," said one of his friends. In his Sketches the future novelist was marking out his territory, just as, in the pamphlet Sunday Under Three Heads, also included here, the lifelong campaigner against injustice and class oppression was finding his unique voice.
This is the first of four volumes of Dickens's greatest journalism - the first ever annotated edition to be published.

About this title

About the Author

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. In 1824, his father was imprisoned for debt, so Charles was sent to work in a shoe-dye factory. He later became a clerk in a law firm, a shorthand reporter in the courts, and a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. In 1833, Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals, heralding the start of a glittering and prolific literary career. He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, with whom he had nine surviving children before they separated in 1858. Dickens died suddenly at home on June 9, 1870, leaving behind an internationally acclaimed canon of work, including Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61) and Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens. Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens.

From School Library Journal

When finished, this projected four-volume set will deliver ``for the first time in annotated form, all the journalism that Dickens published in collected form during his lifetime,'' plus some ephemera. This first volume presents mostly Sketches by Boz (475 of 555 text pages), which hardly needs review. Instead of footnotes, Slater (Univ. of London) provides informative, relatively minimalist headings to chapters, noting first publication data and information on topics, locales, etc., that will interest the general reader but provide little relevant news to experts. This is an attractive package (the 43 Cruikshank illustrations are a real plus), but most of the text is readily available in other editions/collections. Best suited to libraries trying to update, upgrade, or supplement holdings of Miscellaneous Papers, Reprinted Pieces, etc.-Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0460860763
• ISBN 13: 9780460860765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 580
• Editor: Michael Slater