THE STREETS: MORNING

The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer’s morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.

[Read more from Sketches from Boz]

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was a Victorian novelist, social critic, and editor. He began his writing career as a parliamentary reporter and went on to publish his collected Sketches from Boz at age twenty-four. Among his novels, all first published in serial form, are Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1865). He also founded and edited two weeklies, Household Words and All the Year Round; advocated for abolitionism in his American Notes (1842); and gave public readings in England beginning in 1858 and during his second visit to the US in 1867–68.

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