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How did Sketches by “Boz” help launch Charles Dickens’s literary career?

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Portrait of Charles Dickens seated at a desk, writing with a quill pen, dressed in a suit with a bow tie. — Charles Dickens English novelist Charles Dickens working at his craft. Dickens published some of most beloved novels in English literature, including *A Christmas Carol*, *A Tale of Two Cities*, and *Great Expectations*.

Sketches by “Boz” was instrumental in launching the career of Charles Dickens by establishing his reputation as a keen observer of Victorian life. Beginning in 1833, Dickens contributed descriptive essays and stories to various magazines and newspapers, which captured public attention.12

When these pieces were collected and published in book form in February 1836, they achieved significant commercial and critical success, bolstered by the illustrations of George Cruikshank. This success directly facilitated his next major opportunity: that same month, he was invited to provide a comic serial narrative to accompany engravings, which resulted in the creation of The Pickwick Papers. Within months of that publication, Dickens became the most popular author of his day, marking the definitive start of his prolific literary career.12