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".