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".

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
  • 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
• • The boarding-house.
    • 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

External links

• Full text
• Sketches by Boz - in easy to read HTML format.