Sketches of Young Gentlemen

Sketches of Young Gentlemen by Charles Dickens

Sketches of Young Gentlemen is a comic series of character portraits by Charles Dickens, cataloguing a dozen recognisable types of young men for the instruction and amusement of young ladies. It opens with the bashful young gentleman, illustrated by a dinner-party guest who shakes the narrator's hand by mistake, oversets his bread into a tureen of white soup, mismanages his wine, and flees the house wearing another man's coat and the footman's hat; the type is further shown fumbling introductions on the street and dancing quadrilles in silence. The out-and-out young gentleman is divided into those with employment and those without: the former dresses in a "bang-up" pilot coat, smokes and swears, lounges with his boots on theatre cushions, despises his mother and sisters, and befriends a fellow "Mr. Warmint Blake" over brandy and stout; the latter lives on nobody knows what, borne along by the first class's tavern bills. The very friendly young gentleman is embodied by Mr. Mincin, who overwhelms the narrator with pumpkin trivia, flatters Mrs. Capper, retells old jokes as his own anecdotes, and at parties divides his attentions with practised evenness among the Martins, Cappers, and Watsons. The military young gentleman is split between those actually enlisted and those confined to counting-houses who worship uniforms and crack regiments; the narrator describes one gazing at Horse Guards sentries for hours, and flaxen-haired officers swaggering at the theatre under Colonel Fitz-Sordust. The political young gentleman filters all opinion through Conservative or Radical dogma—church, state, "the people," Miss Martineau, Mr. Hawkins the member—wearying dinner tables and assemblies with unresolved argument. The domestic young gentleman is portrayed as Felix Nixon, who lives with his devoted mother near St. Martin-le-Grand, recounts her bulletins on his health and his own heroics against an overcharging hackney coachman, and pays gentle court to Julia Thompson and the Miss Greys over tea and flute music. The censorious young gentleman, Mr. Fairfax, cultivates a reputation for depth through sneers and half-smiles, pronouncing Mrs. Barker's manner mysteriously flawed without ever explaining why. The funny young gentleman, Mr. Griggins, arrives at a Christmas party with a thunderous knock, delights the children, singes a fellow guest's hair as a joke, and distributes mistletoe kisses to general (if protested) delight. The theatrical young gentleman haunts stage doors, rates actors by nickname (Taylor, Nisbett, "old Charley Matthews"), repeats gossip about Liston's brandy and Bennett's feather beds, and prizes trapdoors and crowded finales above dramatic merit. The poetical young gentleman, given as "Mr. Milkwash," affects melancholy, neglects his hair, admires a murderer's "daring" in a notorious case, and produces superlative-laden verses for ladies' albums. The throwing-off young gentleman, "Mr. Caveton," invents a ruined Irish estate at Ballykillbabaloo, claims universal accomplishment while avoiding any test of it, name-drops convenient acquaintances to win arguments, and flatters young ladies with transparent compliments; the narrator notes such men are exposed as impostors, including one who turns out to be a linen-draper's son masquerading as a captain. The young ladies' young gentleman, Mr. Balim, is chronicled on an Epping Forest excursion: he arrives late, is fussed over and fed by admiring girls, wins gloves from them in a wager, and is found in the woods crowned with ribbons and flowers, singing to a circle of reclining admirers. The work closes with the narrator confessing no single type can be recommended, advising young ladies to seek one who unites all the good qualities and none of the weaknesses, quoting Dean Swift's marital advice on preserving a husband's esteem, and playfully soliciting "sealed offers" of marriage addressed to the publishers, Chapman and Hall.

By Charles Dickens · First published 1836 · Genre: Satire, Comedy, Social Commentary · 13 chapters · 19,450 words

First lines

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.

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Sketches of Young Gentlemen is listed on Textopian as a novel by Charles Dickens, dated 1836 CE.

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coming of age · satire · social commentary · Victorian literature · education · gentlemen · class · humor · character sketches · society · youth · moral lessons

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