Charles Dickens and 'Boz'

"This is [a] clearly distinguished work that will change the way we see Dickens, moving as it does forward through Dickens’ career from uncertain beginnings rather than retrospectively … The study is intimately tied to periodicals and tells us new things about them, above all … the slippage and blurred boundaries between the periodical … and the novel."
Judges of the Colby Prize

"[A] fascinating, detailed study of the complex and revealing relationship between Dickens and Boz, his nom-de-plume - or more accurately, his alter ego - through the formative years of his career."
Morning Star

"Including substantial notes, bibliography, and index, this is a superb study for any serious reader of Charles Dickens's work."
Choice

"Through his unrivalled knowledge of a rich but messy archive, Patten makes an impressively coherent case out of a story full of loose ends, changed minds and abandoned plans, as readers, publishers and critics sought to chain down the protean Boz."
Dickens Quarterly

"Patten evinces a fascination for his subject matter that carries the reader through this extraordinarily intricate study."
Times Literary Supplement

"Patten's long labours in the archives of Dickens's publishing history bring a valuable new reading of Dickens's earliest work into the light."
Simon J. James, Modern Language Review

"Dense and thoughtful."
Literary Review

"In Charles Dickens and 'Boz', Patten analyses the myth of Dickens, much of which, as he reveals, stems from the stories that the author like to tell about himself in later life."
Grace Moore, Literary Criticism

"… a monumental study of a decidedly un-monumental figure, an at times moment-by-moment account of a writer living by his wits, improvising and inventing not just fiction but a new way of being an author … Patten makes an impressively coherent case out of a story full of loose ends, changed minds and abandoned plans, as readers, publishers and critics sought to chain down the protean Boz."
Dickens Quarterly