Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. At the height of his career he wrote a series of sketches, mostly set in London, which he collected as The Uncommercial Traveller. Sometimes autobiographical, as childhood experiences are interwoven with adult memories, the sketches include visits to the Paris Morgue, the Liverpool docks, a workhouse, a school for poor children, and the theater. They also describe the perils of travel, including seasickness, shipwreck, the coming of the railways, and the wretchedness of dining in English hotels and restaurants.