Charles Dickens began publishing fiction in late 1833 with short sketches of characters and scenes; originally they were published without byline, but in 1834, he started using the pen-name, Boz. (The 'o' is long; it derives from 'Moses' pronounced through the nose as 'Boses'.) The sketches were published in a number of different magazines until 1836, when Dickens a published, in two 'series', Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People. It did fairly well, although it was very quickly overshadowed by The Pickwick Papers, Dickens's first novel. Ever since that first novel, Sketches by Boz has tended to be overlooked; but no longer here, as it is the next fortnightly book. It's a long work, so it might be a three- or even four-week 'fortnight', depending on my schedule.
Most versions of Sketches use the 1868 edition, but I am reading the Penguin Classics edition edited by Dennis Walder, which deliberately uses the 1839 edition, the first edition to have all of the sketches, on the grounds that (a) this is the edition for which Dickens's own direct involvement was most extensive and is best understood; and (b) many of the revisions to later editions are obviously concessions, perhaps not all directly authorized by Dickens, to a Victorian audience, toning down some of the vividness of the original sketches, and were, besides, occasionally sloppy. Whether this is the case or not, it is the version I have. It also has the original illustrations by George Cruikshank.
