Charles Dickens, Sketches by 'Boz', Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People

Amy R. Wong (University of California, Los Angeles)
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With

The Pickwick Papers

(1836-1837), Charles Dickens’s

Sketches by Boz

, a collection of short pieces of literary journalism, marked the beginning of the young author’s success as a professional writer. Although critics generally look to

Pickwick

for the origins of Dickens’s success as a novelist later in his career, the work in

Sketches

was Dickens’s first taste of success as a paid contributor to the periodical press. Dickens originally published most of the pieces collected under

Sketches

in a wide variety of different newspapers and periodicals between December 1833 and December 1836, at the beginning struggling just to appear in print. In fact, a twenty-one year old Dickens agreed to offer the first seven pieces that would eventually make it into

Sketches

without payment to…

2674 words

Citation: Wong, Amy R.. "Sketches by 'Boz', Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2030, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2030 Sketches by 'Boz', Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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