Hardcover, 443 pages
English language
Published May 14, 1967 by Oxford University Press.
Oliver Twist, Dicken's first novel in the strict sense, was serialized in Bentley's Miscellany from February Its subject 1837 to March 1839. matter, low life in London, and the author's attack upon the scandal of the workhouse system came as something of a surprise to readers enjoying the last episodes of Pick- wick Papers. Dickens believed, however, that ' to draw a knot of such associates in crime as really did exist ; to paint them in all their deformity, in all their wretched- ness, in all the squalid misery of their lives, to show them as they really were ... would be a service to society.' His non-romantic treatment of Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy, and his powerfully evoca- tive picture of London slums in the 1830s also did a service to the art of fiction, by enlarging the range of subjects permitted to the novelist, and by introducing β¦
Oliver Twist, Dicken's first novel in the strict sense, was serialized in Bentley's Miscellany from February Its subject 1837 to March 1839. matter, low life in London, and the author's attack upon the scandal of the workhouse system came as something of a surprise to readers enjoying the last episodes of Pick- wick Papers. Dickens believed, however, that ' to draw a knot of such associates in crime as really did exist ; to paint them in all their deformity, in all their wretched- ness, in all the squalid misery of their lives, to show them as they really were ... would be a service to society.' His non-romantic treatment of Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy, and his powerfully evoca- tive picture of London slums in the 1830s also did a service to the art of fiction, by enlarging the range of subjects permitted to the novelist, and by introducing a new realism in approach.
This edition contains 24 illustra- tions by George Cruikshank.
Very classical. I read the original English version as native German speaker...
I don't consider myself an especially sensitive person, I grew up in a Gentile neighborhood so I've heard it all forever, and I knew ahead of time about Dicken's bigotry and who Fagin was, but I was surprised to be so put off. After a while, I felt like things would be going along OK and then I would be slapped in the face. So here are two stars, don't spend them all in one place.
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I think I've selected the wrong edition. I read the Norton Critical Edition and the included essays are very good.
Over all, I thought this was an alright book. I will say though that I've got to be in the mood for Dickens. There was a lot of conversation in the book, and at the beginning I thought Oliver cried a whole heck of a lot. The story was pretty good though, and it did have a happy ending.
