Charles Dickens

Name: Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin
Author: Charles Dickens

Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

Summary

“Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin”, published in 1836, is a work by Charles Dickens. It explores elements such as Minns, Budden and coach.

Quotes from Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (Charles Dickens)

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Augustus Minns was a bachelor, of about forty as he said—of about eight-and-forty as his friends said. He was always exceedingly clean, precise, and tidy; perhaps somewhat priggish, and the most retiring man in the world. He usually wore a brown frock-coat without a wrinkle, light inexplicables without a spot, a neat neckerchief with a remarkably neat tie, and boots without a fault; moreover, he always carried a brown silk umbrella with an ivory handle. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Budden proceeded—‘Gentlemen; there is an individual present—’
‘Hear! hear!’ said the little man with red whiskers.
‘Pray be quiet, Jones,’ remonstrated Budden.
‘I say, gentlemen, there is an individual present,’ resumed the host, ‘in whose society, I am sure we must take great delight—and—and—the conversation of that individual must have afforded to every one present, the utmost pleasure.’ [‘Thank Heaven, he does not mean me!’ thought Minns, conscious that his diffidence and exclusiveness had prevented his saying above a dozen words since he entered the house.] ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Minns was not his parent, he endeavoured to attract his notice by scraping his drab trousers with his dirty shoes, poking his chest with his mamma’s parasol, and other nameless endearments peculiar to infancy, with which he beguiled the tediousness of the ride, apparently very much to his own satisfaction.
When the unfortunate gentleman arrived at the Swan, he found to his great dismay, that it was a quarter past five. The white house, the stables, the ‘Beware of the Dog,’—every landmark was passed, with a rapidity not unusual to a gentleman of a certain age when too late for dinner. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Minns.’
‘Standing, gentlemen!’ shouted the indefatigable little man with the whiskers—‘and with the honours. Take your time from me, if you please. Hip! hip! hip!—Za!—Hip! hip! hip!—Za!—Hip hip!—Za-a-a!’
All eyes were now fixed on the subject of the toast, who by gulping down port wine at the imminent hazard of suffocation, endeavoured to conceal his confusion. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ After as long a pause as decency would admit, he rose, but, as the newspapers sometimes say in their reports, ‘we regret that we are quite unable to give even the substance of the honourable gentleman’s observations.’ The words ‘present company—honour—present occasion,’ and ‘great happiness’—heard occasionally, and repeated at intervals, with a countenance expressive of the utmost confusion and misery, convinced the company that he was making an excellent speech ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Octavius Budden departed, leaving his cousin looking forward to his visit on the following Sunday, with the feelings of a penniless poet to the weekly visit of his Scotch landlady.
Sunday arrived; the sky was bright and clear; crowds of people were hurrying along the streets, intent on their different schemes of pleasure for the day; everything and everybody looked cheerful and happy except Mr. Augustus Minns. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Minns to ‘run round’ and catch him. However, as it did not occur to Mr. Minns for some ten minutes or so, that he had left the brown silk umbrella with the ivory handle in the other coach, coming down; and, moreover, as he was by no means remarkable for speed, it is no matter of surprise that when he accomplished the feat of ‘running round’ to the Swan, the coach—the last coach—had gone without him.
It was somewhere about three o’clock in the morning, when Mr. Augustus Minns knocked feebly at the street-door of his lodgings in Tavistock-street, cold, wet, cross, and miserable. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (1836)

“ Let’s see, to-day’s Thursday.—Will you come on Sunday? We dine at five, don’t say no—do.’
After a great deal of pressing, Mr. Augustus Minns, driven to despair, accepted the invitation, and promised to be at Poplar-walk on the ensuing Sunday, at a quarter before five to the minute.
‘Now mind the direction,’ said Budden: ‘the coach goes from the Flower-pot, in Bishopsgate-street, every half hour. When the coach stops at the Swan, you’ll see, immediately opposite you, a white house.’
‘Which is your house—I understand,’ said Minns, wishing to cut short the visit, and the story, at the same time. ”

Charles Dickens

Summary

Quotes from Sketches by Boz — Mr. Minns and his cousin (Charles Dickens)

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