Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People
Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People
With Illustrations by George Cruickshank and Phiz
LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, ld. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1903
The whole of these Sketches were written and published, one by one, when I was a very young man. They were collected and republished while I was still a very young man; and sent into the world with all their imperfections (a good many) on their heads.
They comprise my first attempts at authorship—with the exception of certain tragedies achieved at the mature age of eight or ten, and represented with great applause to overflowing nurseries. I am conscious of their often being extremely crude and ill-considered, and bearing obvious marks of haste and inexperience; particularly in that section of the present volume which is comprised under the general head of Tales.
But as this collection is not originated now, and was very leniently and favourably received when it was first made, I have not felt it right either to remodel or expunge, beyond a few words and phrases here and there.
How much is conveyed in those two short words—‘The Parish!’ And with how many tales of distress and misery, of broken fortune and ruined hopes, too often of unrelieved wretchedness and successful knavery, are they associated! A poor man, with small earnings, and a large family, just manages to live on from hand to mouth, and to procure food from day to day; he has barely sufficient to satisfy the present cravings of nature, and can take no heed of the future. His taxes are in arrear, quarter-day passes by, another quarter-day arrives: he can procure no more quarter for himself, and is summoned by—the parish. His goods are distrained, his children are crying with cold and hunger, and the very bed on which his sick wife is lying, is dragged from beneath her. What can he do? To whom is he to apply for relief? To private charity? To benevolent individuals? Certainly not—there is his parish. There are the parish vestry, the parish infirmary, the parish surgeon, the parish officers, the parish beadle. Excellent institutions, and gentle, kind-hearted men. The woman dies—she is buried by the parish. The children have no protector—they are taken care of by the parish. The man first neglects, and afterwards cannot obtain, work—he is relieved by the parish; and when distress and drunkenness have done their work upon him, he is maintained, a harmless babbling idiot, in the parish asylum.
Charles Dickens
Sketches by Boz
PREFACE
OUR PARISH
CHAPTER I—THE BEADLE. THE PARISH ENGINE. THE SCHOOLMASTER
CHAPTER II—THE CURATE. THE OLD LADY. THE HALF-PAY CAPTAIN
CHAPTER III—THE FOUR SISTERS
CHAPTER IV—THE ELECTION FOR BEADLE
CHAPTER V—THE BROKER’S MAN
CHAPTER VI—THE LADIES’ SOCIETIES
CHAPTER VII—OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR
SCENES
CHAPTER I—THE STREETS—MORNING
CHAPTER II—THE STREETS—NIGHT
CHAPTER III—SHOPS AND THEIR TENANTS
CHAPTER IV—SCOTLAND-YARD
CHAPTER V—SEVEN DIALS
CHAPTER VI—MEDITATIONS IN MONMOUTH-STREET
CHAPTER VII—HACKNEY-COACH STANDS
CHAPTER VIII—DOCTORS’ COMMONS
CHAPTER IX—LONDON RECREATIONS
CHAPTER X—THE RIVER
CHAPTER XI—ASTLEY’S
CHAPTER XII—GREENWICH FAIR
CHAPTER XIII—PRIVATE THEATRES
CHAPTER XIV—VAUXHALL-GARDENS BY DAY
CHAPTER XV—EARLY COACHES
CHAPTER XVI—OMNIBUSES
CHAPTER XVII—THE LAST CAB-DRIVER, AND THE FIRST OMNIBUS CAD
CHAPTER XVIII—A PARLIAMENTARY SKETCH
CHAPTER XIX—PUBLIC DINNERS
CHAPTER XX—THE FIRST OF MAY
CHAPTER XXI—BROKERS’ AND MARINE-STORE SHOPS
CHAPTER XXII—GIN-SHOPS
CHAPTER XXIII—THE PAWNBROKER’S SHOP
CHAPTER XXIV—CRIMINAL COURTS
CHAPTER XXV—A VISIT TO NEWGATE
CHARACTERS
CHAPTER I—THOUGHTS ABOUT PEOPLE
CHAPTER II—A CHRISTMAS DINNER
CHAPTER III—THE NEW YEAR
CHAPTER IV—MISS EVANS AND THE EAGLE
CHAPTER V—THE PARLOUR ORATOR
CHAPTER VI—THE HOSPITAL PATIENT
CHAPTER VII—THE MISPLACED ATTACHMENT OF MR. JOHN DOUNCE
CHAPTER VIII—THE MISTAKEN MILLINER. A TALE OF AMBITION
CHAPTER IX—THE DANCING ACADEMY
CHAPTER X—SHABBY-GENTEEL PEOPLE
CHAPTER XI—MAKING A NIGHT OF IT
CHAPTER XII—THE PRISONERS’ VAN
TALES
CHAPTER I—THE BOARDING-HOUSE
CHAPTER II—MR. MINNS AND HIS COUSIN
CHAPTER III—SENTIMENT
CHAPTER IV—THE TUGGSES AT RAMSGATE
CHAPTER V—HORATIO SPARKINS
CHAPTER VI—THE BLACK VEIL
CHAPTER VII—THE STEAM EXCURSION
CHAPTER VIII—THE GREAT WINGLEBURY DUEL
CHAPTER IX—MRS. JOSEPH PORTER
CHAPTER X—A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF MR. WATKINS TOTTLE
CHAPTER XI—THE BLOOMSBURY CHRISTENING
CHAPTER XII—THE DRUNKARD’S DEATH
SKETCHES OF YOUNG GENTLEMEN
THE BASHFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE OUT-AND-OUT YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE VERY FRIENDLY YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE MILITARY YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE POLITICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE DOMESTIC YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE CENSORIOUS YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE FUNNY YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE THEATRICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE POETICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE ‘THROWING-OFF’ YOUNG GENTLEMAN
THE YOUNG LADIES’ YOUNG GENTLEMAN
CONCLUSION
SKETCHES OF YOUNG COUPLES
THE YOUNG COUPLE
THE FORMAL COUPLE
THE LOVING COUPLE
THE CONTRADICTORY COUPLE
THE COUPLE WHO DOTE UPON THEIR CHILDREN
THE COOL COUPLE
THE PLAUSIBLE COUPLE
THE NICE LITTLE COUPLE
THE EGOTISTICAL COUPLE
THE COUPLE WHO CODDLE THEMSELVES
THE OLD COUPLE
CONCLUSION
THE MUDFOG AND OTHER SKETCHES
PUBLIC LIFE OF MR. TULRUMBLE—ONCE MAYOR OF MUDFOG
THE PANTOMIME OF LIFE
SOME PARTICULARS CONCERNING A LION
MR. ROBERT BOLTON: THE ‘GENTLEMAN CONNECTED WITH THE PRESS’
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