File:The life and writings of Charles Dickens- a woman's memorial volume (1871) (14785483723).jpg

Identifier: lifewritingsofch01hana (find matches)
Title: The life and writings of Charles Dickens: a woman's memorial volume
Year: 1871 (1870s)
Authors: Hanaford, Phebe A. (Phebe Ann), 1829-1921
Subjects: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Novelists, English
Publisher: Boston, B.B. Russell San Francisco, A.L. Bancroft & co. (etc, etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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and Character;" which were collected and reprinted
under the title of " Sketches by Boz," in 1836 and 1837.
Boz was his signature in " The Morning Chronicle ;"
and he gave, as the reason for his use of it, that it " was
the nickname of a pet child, — a younger brother, —
whom I had dubbed Moses, in honor of the ' Vicar of
Wakefield,' which, being facetiously pronounced through
the nose, became Boses, and, being shortened, Boz, Boz
was a very familiar household word to me long before I
was an author, and so I came to adopt it." This begin-
ning of his true work showed both the writer and his
readers that English literature could claim as a charm-
ing story-writer young Charles Dickens.

CHAPTER II.
ADVANCING.

Steadily On.—Sketches by Boz. —Wine-drinking Countries. — Our Next-door
Neighbors. — The Drunkard's Grave. — Sporting Papers.

" Though a pledge I had to shiver,
And the longest ever was,
Ere his vessel leaves our river,
I would drink a health to Boz."
HOOD.

" The pen of a ready writer."
Psalm XlV. 1.
Text Appearing After Image:

AS already intimated, Charles Dickens was
persevering, and kept steadily on in th
epath of literature, which to him was most
alluring. He held the pen of a ready
writer ; and he was disposed to use it in
the interests of morality and good order. He showed,
in the Sketches by Boz, a faculty of illustratio
nwhich marked him as one who must be successful. The
pathos and humor which blended in his tales were even
then seen to be remarkable. From those sketches, these
pages are enriched by extracts proving the truth of the
assertion, which, to the reader familiar with the works

14

CHARLES DICKENS. 15

of Dickens, needs no proof. These extracts are far fro
mindicating that Dickens favored intemperance, or failed
to see its folly and sin. He had himself the bad habit
of an Englishman who is not in favor of total absti-
nence ; but it is not right to say of him that he encour-
aged the drunkard in his evil course. While the be-
lievers in the duty of total abstinence cannot but regret
that the great novelist did not use his powerful pen

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