Who was Boz?

The pseudonym that Charles Dickens used to write these first sketches of daily life in early Victorian London, Boz, apparently came from the way Charles's younger brother, Augustus, pronounced the nickname the writer had given him: Moses. Dickens had taken the name from a character in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield and his younger brother could only pronounce it through the nose. Therefore, Moses became Boses and Boses was shortened to Boz.
After I finish reading this delightful collection of impressions of life in Victorian England, I think I will buy this DVD, and possibly the book too. '''''''''''''''''' (This was Michi, agreeing with me, while he tried to open the bottle of brewer's yeast pills. He's addicted to them!).

"The Election for Beadle" and a change of plans

Yes, I have decided that I am changing the order in which I am going to read the Sketches by Boz. After all, I was not alive when they were appearing in the different magazines, so I'd better read them as they are intended to be read by a 21st-century audience. I reached that decision today, after reading "The Election for Beadle" (SB 4), originally published as "Sketches of London No 16" in The Evening Chronicle on  14th July, 1835. Yesterday, when I read "The Four Sisters", I already had the feeling that I was treading on ground that was unknown to me but which Dickens's readers must have known beforehand. The parish of which the narrator talked about had already been the subject of other sketches. Given that the Delphi Classics edition only includes 25 sketches in the section "Original Published Order of the Sketches", something must be amiss. Today, in "The Election for Beadle", I had no doubt. Four paragraphs into the story, the narrator, having introduced one character, tells us that "His great opponent in public life is Captain Purday, the old naval officer on half-pay, to whom we have already introduced our readers." There! No Captain Purday has been introduced to me so far, so I presume he must have appeared in one of the first two sketches. Therefore, tomorrow I start reading the Sketches by Boz from the very beginning, with the section entitled "Our Parish". I'll revisit the beadle election and the four sisters but I am sure to meet many other characters which I should like to be acquainted with already.

Sketches by Boz 8. "The Four Sisters" (Originally, "Sketches of London Nº 14"

A jewel of a sketch, "The Four Sisters" (SB 3) tells the story of the four Miss Willises who, after having lived in the parish for thirteen years, suddenly get married. All four at once? All married to the same man, Mr. Robinson? No, only one of them becomes Mrs. Robinson but, since all of them behave in exactly the same way during the ceremony and all of them go on living together as before, speculation can only be a matter of course. Nature eventually follows its course and in duetime the mystery is solved.

The four Brodie sisters, picture by Lewis Carroll

I see that this is part of a series of sketches which were published in the group "Our Parish" of Sketches by Boz. I am looking forward to reading them all. Its original title was "Sketches of London No.14) and it was published in The Evening Chronicle, on 18th June, 1935. Interesting anticipation of the description of Coketown in Hard Times, which would reach the press nineteen years later: "Everything was formal, still, and cold - so were the four Miss Willises. Not a single chair of the whole set was ever seen out of its place - not a single Miss Willis of the whole four was ever seen out of hers. There they always sat, in the same places, doing precisely the same things at the same hour". 


There are no illustrations in this sketch, so I looked for one.  I chose a photograph of Lilian, Margaret, Ida, and Ethel Brodie, daughters of Oxford Professor Benjamin Brodie, taken by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). You can access these and many others at http://mural.uv.es/carmapa2/arte8.html, a talk given by Edward Wakeling in various venues in 2003 after the publichation of Lewis Carroll, Photographer. There were, however, other options to illustrate this post. Pick your own:

 

To my lovely sister, Irene. Love you tons, sweetie!!!

Sketches by Boz 7. "A Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle". Chapter the Second

Well, well, well, it turns out that the second chapter of "A Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle" is not the longest of the Sketches after all. Rather, the edition I am reading is faulty and transfers the reader back in time just before Mr. Tottle is going to deliver Miss Lillerton's note to the clergyman Mr. Timson, so that one goes back to the debtor-prison and has once again the whole account of the young married couple, Mr. Gabriel Parsons's release of Mr. Tottle, the conditions he establishes, the dinner with the Parsons and Miss Lillerton, the confusing proposal and then goes back to the moment in which Mr. Timson's violoncello stops playing and the clergyman is about to enter the scene. Quite a bittersweet sketch this one, which includes a glimpse at life within a debtors' prison. I feel so sorry for poor Mr. Tottle. 

Sketches by Boz 7. "A Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle". Chapter the first

"A Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle" (SB 54), appeared originally published as "Chapter the First" and "Chapter the Second" in two numbers of The Monthly Magazine, January and February, 1835. It was my intention to read the whole of this "Passage" but it just so happens that the second chapter is the longest of all the Sketches I've read up to know and I NEED to go to bed, so I'll just leave you, with Mr. Watkins Tottle, longing to get married, having finally met a prospective candidate, awaiting to make a deeper acquaintance. In the meantime, his good friend Mr. Gabriel Parsons has just told him the most extraordinary story about his courting his wife and the way they spent their wedding-night. Not in the way you would expect, really... Tomorrow, the denouement of this chapter in the life of Mr. Tottle.

Sketches by Boz 6. "The Steam Excursion"

HILARIOUS! ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS! As usual in the Sketches, Dickens maintains a tranquil narrative pace and mounts to a crescendo towards the end of the story. "The Steam Excursion" (SB 51), first published in the Monthly Magazine in October, 1834 had me laughing out loud seeing people unsuccessfully trying to keep their cool in the middle of a stormy boating excursion. Even poor Mr. Hardy gave up pretending and, like the rest of the passage, ended up on the deck, in a not very flattering position: "Mr. Hardy was observed, some hours afterwards, in an attitude which induced his friends to suppose that he was busily engaged in contemplating the beauties of the deep; they only regretted that his taste for the picturesque should lead him to remain so long in a position, very injurious at all times, but especially so, to an individual labouring under a tendency of blood to the head." Pricesless! The plates by Cruikshank summarise the two moods of the story and could very well be labelled "Before" and "After".

Sketches by Boz 5. "Sentiment"

Originally published in Bell's Weekly Magazine, on 7th June, 1934, "Sentiment" (SB47) presents us Dickens at its least sentimental.  If it's meant to be - the sketch seems to imply - it will be, although there doesn't seem to be much hope one way or another to Miss Lavinia Brook Dingwall/Mrs. Butler.

"Mr. and Mrs. Butler are at present rusticating in a small cottage at Ball's pond, pleasantly situated in the immediate vicinity of a brick-field. They have no family. Mr. Theodosius looks very important, and writes incessantly; but, in consequence of a gross combination on the part of publishers, none of his productions appear in print. His young wife begins to think that ideal misery is preferable to real unhappiness; and that a marriage, contracted in haste, and repented at leisure, is the cause of more substantial wretchedness than she ever anticipated."

Sketches by Boz 4. "The Bloomsbury Christening" and "The Boarding House" (1934)

Great Russell Square, Bloomsbury... the names take me back in time, to the British Library and all the research I carried out there, for my doctoral dissertation. Tempus fugit. "The Bloomsbury Christening" (SB 55), first published in the Monthly Magazine in April, 1834, introduces the misanthropist Mr. Nicodemus Dumps, a pre-Scrooge figure with none of the latter's redeeming features. The narrator describes him as someone who "was never happy but when he was miserable; and always miserable when he had the best reason to be happy" and, certainly, he does succeed in spoiling the most joyous of celebrations: his godson's christening. Don't you think Garbage's "Only happy when it rains" suits him? I love that song, and I love the rain, but ... God forbid I ever turn into a Mr. Dumps!

As for "The Boarding House" (SB 45), it was originally published in the Monthly Magazine in May and August, 1834 (two chapters) and was the first of Dickens's stories signed by "Boz". This is my favourite sketch up to now, which I have read with Michi - my youngest kitty, whom I found seven months ago today - and had to interrupt for a while so that he could play "Cat Fishing" in my iPad. Of course he won. He's a winner (and a poser, as you can see).


Back to Dickens and "The Boarding House", setting the action in a boarding house allows Dickens to explore all sorts of different character traits, create brilliant dialogues while managing to keep out of the reader's eyes the entanglement which surfaces at the end of each of the two episodes. I wonder if it was ever adapted for the stage. It would have worked wonderfully. Also, I love the cheeky intrusive narrator! Superb, by the way, Cruishank's illustrations for the Sketches.

Sketches by Boz 3. "Mrs. Joseph Porter, Over the Way" and "Horatio Sparkins" (1834)

The Kindle edition that I am using in this adventure (Delphi Classics) mercifully decided to include a separate table of contents including the sketches in their originally published order, together with the dates and magazine titles each piece appeared in. This is exactly what I intend to do: read all of Dickens's works in the order in which they were published, and having them arranged like that in this edition saves me from doing the work myself.
After "A Dinner at Poplar Walk", in January 1834, the Monthly Magazine published "Mrs. Joseph Porter, Over the Way" (SB 53), a very amusing piece of literature of local customs and manners - indeed, what these sketches are meant to be - which reminded me a little bit of Mariano José de Larra's "El castellano viejo". On this occasion, however, rather than a disastrous birthday dinner, the focus of the satire is an amateur performance of Othello. A Iago on Wellington boots, a prompter without spectacles, among many other disasters, turned Shakespeare's tragedy into an impossible comedy. "The audience went home at four o'clock in the mornign, exhausted with laughter, suffering from severe headaches, and smelling terribly of brimstone and gunpowder [you'll have to read why]. The Messrs. Gattleton, senior and junior, retired to rest, with the vague idea of emigrating to Swan River early in the ensuing week". 


Rather more bitter is the next sketch to be published, "Horatio Sparkins" (SB 49), which appeared also in the Monthly Magazine in February, 1834. Reminiscent of Jane Austen's Mrs Bennett, the Maldertons, anxious to mingle exclusively in any society above their own, are intrigued about a Horatio Sparkins which everyone takes to be a sort of Mr Darcy. A prospect candidate for one of their daughters, they invite him to dinner and find him to be an excellent, learned, intelligent young man, so they can only imagine that he must be a barrister. They try by all means to prevent him from learning that Mrs Malderton's brother - Mr. Jacob Barton, who had invited himself to meet the young man - is a grocer. The reader feels that this Mr. Sparkins is not exactly what everyone expects him to be and, certainly, the surprise is served just at the very end. Needless to say, none of the you Malderton girls got married, or, as the narrator had it: "The daisies have thrice bloomed on Camberwell-green; the sparrows have thrice repeated their vernal chirps in Camberwell-grove; but the Miss Maldertons are still unmated. Miss Teresa's case is more desperate than ever; but Flamwell is yet in the zenith of his reputation; and the family have the same predilection for aristocratic personages, with an increased aversion to anything low". 


One cannot say that things have changed that much, can one? Vanitas vanitatis.

Sketches by Boz 2. "Mrs. Joseph Porter" (tomorrow)

Just got home and I am exhausted. It was a very busy day and I could only read "Mrs Joseph Porter". I am really loving these sketches but... in order to write fairly about them, I need to do it when I am awake. Tomorrow, then, "Mrs. Joseph Porter" and all the other sketches that manage to come along. I'll have so much more time to read tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Till then, good night!

"A Dinner at Poplar Walk" (1833) - Later "Mr. Minns and his Cousin" (Sketches by Boz 1)

"A Dinner at Poplar Walk" was the first published work of Charles Dickens. It appeared in the Monthly Magazine on December 1st, 1833. It was later included in Sketches by Boz, with the new title that Dickens later gave it: "Mr. Minns and His Cousin". The editors of the Delphi Classics edition of The Complete Works of Charles Dickens decided to open the collection with "A Dinner at Poplar Walk", even though it is included again in Sketches by Boz, with its new title because it marked the beginning of Dickens's career as a storyteller. They add a moving account by Dickens himself explaining his feelings when his story was published:

"... my first copy of the Magazine in which my first effusion - dropped stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear and trembling, into a dark letter-box, in a dark office, up a dark court in Fleet Street - appeared in all the glory of print; on which memorable occasion - how well I recollect it! - I walked down to Westminster Hall, and turned into it for half-an-hour, because my eyes were so dimmed with joy and pride, that they could not bear the street, and were not fit to be seen there."


What a wonderful piece of comedy! What can you expect when Mr. Augustus Minns, "the most retiring man in the world" is invited to dinner by his boisterous cousin, Mr. Octavius Budden, with the hope that the former would make the latter's son his heir? Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, if you add that Mr. Minns hates dogs and children, that Mr Budden has, as already said, a son, and that he brings his own dog to Mr. Minns's house to formally invite him to dinner... comedy is served. Some quotes to open up your appetite:


"There were two classes of created objects which he [Mr. Minns] held in the deepest and most unmingled horror; these were dogs, and children. He was not unamiable, but he could, at any time, have viewed the execution of a dog, or the assassination of an infant, with the liveliest satisfaction."


"And Mr. Octavius Budden departed, leaving his cousing looking forward to his visit on the following Sunday, with the feelings of a penniless poet to the weekly visit of his Scotch landlady."


"By the most extraordinary good fortune, however, a coach was waiting at the Flower-pot, into which Mr. Augustus Minns got, on the solemn assurance of the cad that the vehicle would start in three minutes - that being the very utmost extremity of time it was allowed to wait by Act of Parliament. A quarter of an hour elapsed, and there were no signs of moving. Minns looked at his watch for the sixth time." Thankfully, I should add, this sort of things seem not to be exclusive to Spain...

And the finale: SPOILER ALERT!!!

"It was somewhere about three o'clock in the morning, when Mr. Augustus Minns knocked feebly at the street-door of his lodgings in Tavistock-street, cold, wet, cross, and miserable. He made his will next morning, and his professional man informs us, in that strict confidence in which we inform the public, [isn't this great or what?] that neither the name of Mr. Octavius Budden, nor of Mrs. Amelia Budden, nor of Master Alexander Augustus Budden, appears therein."


"A Dinner at Poplar Walk" was just the beginning...