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.