Dickens's first published piece appeared in the December, 1833, number of the
Monthly Magazine , followed by nine others, the last two appearing over the
signature "Boz," a pseudonym Dickens adopted from a pet name for his younger
brother. These sketches were collected into two volumes and published on
Dickens's twenty-fourth birthday, February 7, 1836, as Sketches by Boz.
Illustrative of Everyday Life and Everyday People.
Dickens's skills as an observant reporter intimately familiar with middle and
lower class London are demonstrated in these descriptive vignettes of everyday
life, which also reveal his high humor and his deep concern for social justice,
qualities that will dominate his novels.
On April 2, 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth,
with whom Dickens worked on the Morning Chronicle . Catherine and Charles had
ten children before they separated in 1858. Mary Hogarth, Catherine's beautiful
younger sister, joined the Dickens household shortly after the honeymoon. Mary's
death, at seventeen years of age, in Dickens's arms established in his mind an
image of ideal womanhood that never left him. The ring he took from Mary's dead
finger remained on his hand until his own death.
