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Sketches by Boz Volume 1: Our Parish
This volume collects the Our Parish stories written by Charles Dickens for the Sketches by Boz series.
- GenresFictionShort Stories
118 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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About the author
Charles Dickens
12.7k books31.4k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 25, 2022
3.5⭐
Our Parish is a series of 7 sketches written by Charles Dickens covering stories of London scenes and people.
Chapter 1. THE BEADLE. THE PARISH ENGINE. THE SCHOOLMASTER 3.25⭐
The beadle in this Dicken's story is an awe inspiring figure who, carrying his staff of office, maintains order in the parish and as a civic official carries out duties which include religious, functionary and educational duties.
The parish's fire-engine is essentially a wagon equipped with leather hoses and a manual water-pump. The engine was still pulled by volunteers on a four-wheeled cart to the fire, the manual pump was manned by teams of four to twelve men (Dickens increases the number to "eighteen boys" in his story).
Chapter 2. THE CURATE. THE OLD LADY. THE HALF-PAY CAPTAIN 3.5⭐
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this story, "curate" means a parish priest The duties or office of a curate are called a curacy. The popularity of the young good-looking curate with the ladies is eclipsed by a new church official who was in every respect the antipodes of the curate. The curate was no longer a novelty, and the other new clergyman was. The old lady and her neighbor the old naval captain on half-pay seem to be at odds. A half-pay captain is in non-active service which means they receive reduced wages, or half-pay.
Chapter 3. THE FOUR SISTERS 3.25⭐
This sketch concerns four sisters (four Miss Willises) who live together and is narrated from the POV of an anonymous neighbor. One of the women marries Mr. Robinson, though for a long time the neighbors don't know which one, as they all still went everywhere together. It was as if all four sisters had married Mr. Robinson. It ends with the solution of a small mystery about one of the women's illness that turns out to be pregnancy.
Chapter 4. THE ELECTION FOR BEADLE 3.5⭐
The tale describes a battle between two candidates, Bung and Thomas Spruggins, to be elected as the local parish beadle. Thomas Spruggins with ten small children and a wife was backed by the overseer, Bung with five small children was backed by the half pay captain.
Chapter 5. THE BROKER’S MAN 4⭐
This sketch features Dickens's first attempt at a characterized narrator within the narration. Mr. Bung, (the newly elected beadle) who works for a broker, that is, someone whose job it is to value goods seized for unpaid rent or other debts, tells Boz various anecdotes, comic and pathetic, of his professional life.
Chapter 6. THE LADIES’ SOCIETIES 3⭐
The sketch is a satire on the evangelical societies of the time, with their missionary zeal to get involved in many causes.
Chapter 7. OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR 3.5⭐
This sketch is the last chapter in Our Parish In this sketch Boz (the narrator) abandons intermediaries for gaining information about people and comes to rely on his first-hand observations. Three successive tenants inhabit the room leased out by the narrator's next-door neighbor. Each tenant helps to refine the theory of the narrator's observations that both non-verbal communications skills and surface observations are needed to understand other people.
Our Parish is a series of 7 sketches written by Charles Dickens covering stories of London scenes and people.
Chapter 1. THE BEADLE. THE PARISH ENGINE. THE SCHOOLMASTER 3.25⭐
The beadle in this Dicken's story is an awe inspiring figure who, carrying his staff of office, maintains order in the parish and as a civic official carries out duties which include religious, functionary and educational duties.
The parish's fire-engine is essentially a wagon equipped with leather hoses and a manual water-pump. The engine was still pulled by volunteers on a four-wheeled cart to the fire, the manual pump was manned by teams of four to twelve men (Dickens increases the number to "eighteen boys" in his story).
Chapter 2. THE CURATE. THE OLD LADY. THE HALF-PAY CAPTAIN 3.5⭐
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this story, "curate" means a parish priest The duties or office of a curate are called a curacy. The popularity of the young good-looking curate with the ladies is eclipsed by a new church official who was in every respect the antipodes of the curate. The curate was no longer a novelty, and the other new clergyman was. The old lady and her neighbor the old naval captain on half-pay seem to be at odds. A half-pay captain is in non-active service which means they receive reduced wages, or half-pay.
Chapter 3. THE FOUR SISTERS 3.25⭐
This sketch concerns four sisters (four Miss Willises) who live together and is narrated from the POV of an anonymous neighbor. One of the women marries Mr. Robinson, though for a long time the neighbors don't know which one, as they all still went everywhere together. It was as if all four sisters had married Mr. Robinson. It ends with the solution of a small mystery about one of the women's illness that turns out to be pregnancy.
Chapter 4. THE ELECTION FOR BEADLE 3.5⭐
The tale describes a battle between two candidates, Bung and Thomas Spruggins, to be elected as the local parish beadle. Thomas Spruggins with ten small children and a wife was backed by the overseer, Bung with five small children was backed by the half pay captain.
Chapter 5. THE BROKER’S MAN 4⭐
This sketch features Dickens's first attempt at a characterized narrator within the narration. Mr. Bung, (the newly elected beadle) who works for a broker, that is, someone whose job it is to value goods seized for unpaid rent or other debts, tells Boz various anecdotes, comic and pathetic, of his professional life.
Chapter 6. THE LADIES’ SOCIETIES 3⭐
The sketch is a satire on the evangelical societies of the time, with their missionary zeal to get involved in many causes.
Chapter 7. OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR 3.5⭐
This sketch is the last chapter in Our Parish In this sketch Boz (the narrator) abandons intermediaries for gaining information about people and comes to rely on his first-hand observations. Three successive tenants inhabit the room leased out by the narrator's next-door neighbor. Each tenant helps to refine the theory of the narrator's observations that both non-verbal communications skills and surface observations are needed to understand other people.
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