Oliver Twist

or, The Parish Boy's Progress

Softcover, 554 pages

English language

Published May 26, 2003 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-143974-7
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OCLC Number:
52335046

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4 stars (4 reviews)

The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse, only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters — the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic romance, the Newgate novel and popular melodrama, in Oliver Twist Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

This is the first critical edition to use the serial text of 1837-9 presenting Oliver Twist as it appeared to its earliest readers. It includes Dickens's 1841 introduction and 1850 preface, the original illustrations and a glossary of contemporary slang.

18 editions

Review of 'Oliver Twist' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A lot of people I know always say they Dickens is hard to read and when I started olive twist a few said good luck with that and sniggered as they went back to their Harry Potter books. I found this to be a fantastic story, I only had a brief knowledge of the story and the characters from films at Christmas. The style it is written in transported me to London, I managed to have a voice for each character, at times I think I was mistaken for Jack the Ripper. Best character in the book was Mr Bunce, I don't think I have ever felt as sorry for a character as him when he got married. I drive past this pub now and then called Mr Bunce, I never had any idea who it was until reading this book.

The violence in this book is pretty graphic at …

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Subjects

  • Boys -- Fiction
  • Orphans -- Fiction
  • Criminals -- Fiction
  • Kidnapping victims -- Fiction
  • London (England) -- Fiction

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