Charles Dickens was one of the great chroniclers of London life. From the colourful chaos of dances and gin-shops to the sparse destitution of the pawnshop and the penitentiary, he captured the grime and the glory of the English capital with singular brilliance. Orphans and beggars, lord mayors and murderers, actors, criminals, cab drivers and prostitutes; all rub shoulders in this wonderful selection from Sketches by Boz. Chosen and introduced by the playwright J. B. Priestley, these thirteen marvellous sketches are accompanied by George Cruikshank’s evocative illustrations. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People (commonly known as Sketches by Boz) is a collection of short pieces Charles Dickens published as a book in 1836, with illustrations by George Cruikshank. The 56 sketches concern London scenes and people, and the whole work is divided into four sections: "Our Parish," "Scenes," "Characters" and "Tales." The material in the first three sections consists of non-narrative pen-portraits, but the last section comprises fictional stories. The sketches were originally published in various newspapers and other periodicals between 1833 and 1836, then issued in instalments under their current title from 1837 to 1839. The sketch "Mr Minns and his Cousin" (originally titled "A Dinner at Poplar Walk"), was the first work of fiction Dickens ever published. It appeared in The Monthly Magazine in December 1833. Although Dickens continued to place pieces in that magazine, none of them bore a signature until August 1834, when "The Boarding House" appeared under the strange pen-name "Boz." A verse in Bentley's Miscellany for March 1837 recalled the public's perplexity about this pseudonym: "Who the dickens 'Boz' could be Puzzled many a learned elf, Till time unveiled the mystery, And 'Boz' appeared as Dickens's self." Dickens took the pseudonym from a nickname he had given his younger brother Augustus, whom he called "Moses" after a character in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. This, "being facetiously pronounced through the nose," became "Boses," which in turn was shortened to "Boz." The name remained coupled with "inimitable" until "Boz" eventually disappeared and Dickens became known as, simply, "The Inimitable."