Fiction · 1837
Mudfog and Other Sketches
Mudfog is a pleasant town in a charming hollow by a river, from which it derives an agreeable scent of pitch, tar and rope-yarn, and whose town hall is a fine specimen of shed architecture. Its former mayor, Mr Tulrumble, having made money in coals, returns from London determined to be magnificent, and the results occupy the first piece. The two long ones that follow are the full reports of the first and second meetings of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything, at which learned gentlemen read papers to sections on Zoology, Anatomy, Statistics and Mechanical Science — a parody of the British Association's annual proceedings, complete down to a supplementary section on Umbugology and Ditchwaterisics. Four shorter pieces close the volume, among them "The Pantomime of Life" and "Some Particulars Concerning a Lion".
Dickens wrote these for Bentley's Miscellany in 1837 and 1838, in the years of Pickwick and Oliver Twist, and did not collect them himself; they were gathered after his death and are usually printed with Sketches by Boz.
This Bibliomancer edition presents all seven pieces complete.
Contents
- Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble Once Mayor of Mudfog
- ‘Section A.—Zoology and Botany
- ‘Section B.—Anatomy and Medicine: Coach-House, Pig and Tinder-Box
- ‘Section C.—Statistics: Hay-Loft, Original Pig
- ‘Section D.—Mechanical Science: Coach-House, Original Pig
- ‘Section A.—Zoology and Botany: Front Parlour, Black Boy and Stomach-Ache
- ‘Section B.—Display of Models and Mechanical Science: Large Room, Boot-Jack and Countenance
- ‘Section C.—Anatomy and Medicine: Bar Room, Black Boy and Stomach-Ache
- ‘Section D.—Statistics
- The Pantomime of Life
- Some Particulars Concerning a Lion
- Mr. Robert Bolton the ‘Gentleman Connected with the Press’
- Familiar Epistle from a Parent to a Child: Aged Two Years and Two Months
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1812–1870 · Victorian
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was born at Portsmouth and worked as a child in a blacking factory while his father was imprisoned for debt — an experience he drew on for the rest of his life. A parliamentary reporter by twenty, he became the most popular novelist in English with The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) and never lost that place: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861) followed. He died at Gad’s Hill, Kent.
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