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Файл:Collected Sketches
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CHARLES DICKENS
COLLECTED
SKETCHES
Москва, 2018
УДК 82
ББК 84(0)
Charles Dickens
Collected Sketches / C. Dickens – М. : T8RUGRAM / Original,
2018. – 146 с. – (Top 100 Classic Books)
ISBN 978-5-521-08032-8
Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. This
volume showcases two collections of little-known sketches by
Dickens. Whimsical, satirical, witty and exuberant, the sketches
ridicule the behavior of their subjects with perfect comic effect,
offering fascinating evidence of a writer learning his craft and refi ning his style.
УДК 82
ББК 84(0)
BIC FC
BISAC FIC004000
© T8RUGRAM, оформление, 2018
ISBN 978-5-521-08032-8 © Original, 2018
CONTENTS
SKETCHES OF YOUNG GENTLEMEN
THE BASHFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
THE OUT-AND-OUT YOUNG GENTLEMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
THE VERY FRIENDLY YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . 20
THE MILITARY YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
THE POLITICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
THE DOMESTIC YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
THE CENSORIOUS YOUNG GENTLEMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
THE FUNNY YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
THE THEATRICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
THE POETICAL YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
THE ‘THROWING-OFF’ YOUNG GENTLEMAN. . . . . . . . . . . 60
THE YOUNG LADIES’ YOUNG GENTLEMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
SKETCHES OF YOUNG COUPLES
THE YOUNG COUPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
THE FORMAL COUPLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
THE LOVING COUPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
THE CONTRADICTORY COUPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
THE COUPLE WHO DOTE UPON THEIR CHILDREN. . . . 103
THE COOL COUPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
THE PLAUSIBLE COUPLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
THE NICE LITTLE COUPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
THE EGOTISTICAL COUPLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
THE COUPLE WHO CODDLE THEMSELVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
THE OLD COUPLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
SKETCHES OF
YOUNG GENTLEMEN
TO THE YOUNG LADIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND; ALSO
THE YOUNG LADIES OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF
WALES, AND LIKEWISE THE YOUNG LADIES RESIDENT IN THE ISLES OF GUERNSEY, JERSEY, ALDERNEY, AND SARK, THE HUMBLE DEDICATION
OF THEIR DEVOTED ADMIRER,
SHEWETH, -
THE BASHFUL YOUNG
GENTLEMAN
We found ourself seated at a small dinner party the other
day, opposite a stranger of such singular appearance and manner, that he irresistibly attracted our attention.
This was a fresh-coloured young gentleman, with as good
a promise of light whisker as one might wish to see, and possessed of a very velvet-like, soft-looking countenance. We do
not use the latter term invidiously, but merely to denote a pair
of smooth, plump, highly-coloured cheeks of capacious dimensions, and a mouth rather remarkable for the fresh hue of the
lips than for any marked or striking expression it presented.
His whole face was suffused with a crimson blush, and bore
that downcast, timid, retiring look, which betokens a man ill
at ease with himself.
There was nothing in these symptoms to attract more than
a passing remark, but our attention had been originally drawn
to the bashful young gentleman, on his fi rst appearance in the
drawing-room above-stairs, into which he was no sooner introduced, than making his way towards us who were standing in a window, and wholly neglecting several persons who
warmly accosted him, he seized our hand with visible emotion,
and pressed it with a convulsive grasp for a good couple of
9
CHARLES DICKENS
minutes, after which he dived in a nervous manner across the
room, oversetting in his way a fi ne little girl of six years and a
quarter old – and shrouding himself behind some hangings,
was seen no more, until the eagle eye of the hostess detecting
him in his concealment, on the announcement of dinner, he
was requested to pair off with a lively single lady, of two or
three and thirty.
This most fl attering salutation from a perfect stranger,
would have gratifi ed us not a little as a token of his having held
us in high respect, and for that reason been desirous of our
acquaintance, if we had not suspected from the fi rst, that the
young gentleman, in making a desperate effort to get through
the ceremony of introduction, had, in the bewilderment of his
ideas, shaken hands with us at random. This impression was
fully confi rmed by the subsequent behaviour of the bashful
young gentleman in question, which we noted particularly,
with the view of ascertaining whether we were right in our
conjecture.
The young gentleman seated himself at table with evident
misgivings, and turning sharp round to pay attention to some
observation of his loquacious neighbour, overset his bread.
There was nothing very bad in this, and if he had had the presence of mind to let it go, and say nothing about it, nobody but
the man who had laid the cloth would have been a bit the
wiser; but the young gentleman in various semi-successful attempts to prevent its fall, played with it a little, as gentlemen
in the streets may be seen to do with their hats on a windy day,
and then giving the roll a smart rap in his anxiety to catch it,
knocked it with great adroitness into a tureen of white soup at
some distance, to the unspeakable terror and disturbance of
10
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