If you harken back to my Dickensian love fest a la A Tale of Two Cities then you'll recall that Charles Dickens is one of my all-time favorite authors. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to you that whenever I come across any of his works that I don't own (we don't speak of the two copies of David Copperfield which I covet) I pick it up. That's how The Mudfog Papers came into my life and I couldn't be happier about it. It's a satirical little novel that was original written in serial format (as most of the works by Dickens were). It's all about the goings on in the town of Mudfog. Especially of interest were the meetings of 'The Mudfog Society for the Advancement of Everything' where a reporter was sent to take notes for public consumption. It is HYSTERICAL. Between the caricatures of the learned men in the so-called 'Society' and the minute-by-minute letters from the reporter it's Dickens's tongue-in-cheek commentary at its best. (He was lampooning the British Association for the Advancement of Science by the way.) I read a few pages a night of this delightful little tome only so I could prolong the experience. This is 'comfort reading' at its very, very best. 10/10 highly recommend this and (everything he's written) to everyone. ( )

Sketches, humourous, a little short and at the end wanting more. ( )