During his early working years, Dickens had started writing short pieces or “sketches.” Some were stories; others, descriptions of places in London, such as Newgate Prison or the shopping districts. One of these, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” was published in 1833 in the Monthly Magazine. It was an emotional and exciting moment for the young writer even though he received no payment or credit for that first article. The magazine requested more and he started using the pen name, Boz. In 1836, he published a collection of sixty of these pieces in a book called Sketches by Boz. It received critical praise and sales were good. Monthly Magazine then asked Dickens to write a humorous novel that they would publish in twenty installments. Thus, Dickens’ novel Pickwick Papers was born.
By the fourth installment of Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens was a dramatic success. People at all levels of society loved him. The acclaim only fueled his intensity. While still working on Pickwick Papers, Dickens started a much darker novel, Oliver Twist. It was a social criticism of the exploitation of orphans both in institutions and on the streets. Not to be slowed, he began Nicholas Nickleby when Oliver Twist was only half-finished. Nickleby combined both the humor of his first novel with the criticism of his second, focusing on the corruption of private boarding schools.
