Sketches by "Boz." Illustrative of Every-Day-Life and Every-Day-People

Philadelphia, PA: T. B. Peterson and Brothers. Good. 1864. Early printing. Hardcover. The book has illustrated paper covered boards and a leather spine and corners. Both front and rear spine joints have cracked - though both covers are held on to the text block by the strings. Most of the leather on the covers have been damaged or perished. The text block is generally clean and bright, though there are spots of foxing throughout. There is a previous owner's inked name on the front endpaper, and a previous owner's bookplate (LeRoy V. Brandt) on the front pastedown page. "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 originally published in various newspapers and other periodicals between 1833 and 1836. They were re-issued in book form, under their current title, in February and August 1836, with illustrations by George Cruikshank. The first complete one volume edition appeared in 1839. 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. " (from Wikipedia) .