Oliver
Twist is one of the
best known works of Charles
Dickens, mostly thanks to the movie adaption Oliver! (1968). I had never
read it until last month, and I ended up – surprised.
It’s not one of
Dickens’s better novels.
Oliver Twist is the story of an orphan, born
illegitimately (a shocking enough notion for early Victorian literature). His
early years are spent in a workhouse run by incompetent and sometimes venal
caretakers. He’s “sold” to a coffin maker; the practice of selling (officially,
“apprenticing”) orphan children was common at the time. He runs away to London,
and falls in with a criminal gang led by the miserly Fagin. The gang includes the
Artful Dodger, John Dawkins; the vicious Bill Sikes; the thief Charley Bates;
Toby Crackit, a burglar; and the thief Nancy, Sikes’s lover and who will die
for trying to save Oliver.
Oliver moves in
and out of potentially criminal situations, Dickens managing to keep him just
out of reach of the law. He’s taken in twice and cared for, once by the elderly
gentleman Mr. Brownlow and once by a lady, Mrs. Maylie, and her daughter Rose.
But the criminals are always hovering around Oliver, and for a good reason –
they need to get him caught in criminal activity.
To continue
reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
Illustration: In a famous scene in the
novel, Oliver asks for more gruel.
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