Saturday 11 February 2012

Sketches by Boz 5. "Sentiment"

Originally published in Bell's Weekly Magazine, on 7th June, 1934, "Sentiment" (SB47) presents us Dickens at its least sentimental.  If it's meant to be - the sketch seems to imply - it will be, although there doesn't seem to be much hope one way or another to Miss Lavinia Brook Dingwall/Mrs. Butler.

"Mr. and Mrs. Butler are at present rusticating in a small cottage at Ball's pond, pleasantly situated in the immediate vicinity of a brick-field. They have no family. Mr. Theodosius looks very important, and writes incessantly; but, in consequence of a gross combination on the part of publishers, none of his productions appear in print. His young wife begins to think that ideal misery is preferable to real unhappiness; and that a marriage, contracted in haste, and repented at leisure, is the cause of more substantial wretchedness than she ever anticipated."

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