I hate Oliver Twist. AND I hate Oliver Twist. I can stand neither the character nor the book. One thing that one is taught over and over again in literature classes and in writing classes is that characters must change, that protagonists must be organic and developing, not round. So what's the deal with Oliver? He starts as a twit, and ends as a twit. I know that the point is how his purity is untouched by the gangrenous society in which he is enveloped, but... But books like this, and especially characters like this, drive me up the wall. So that's why I made the shelf on which I have placed this.

This has been an exercise in exorcism for me.

I have been enjoying reading Dickens lately but I knew that not until I tackled Oliver Twist would I have dealt with, and conquered, the devil.

Images of black and white dreary images in a boxy TV have been projecting in the back of my mind since my childhood. And growing up and becoming an adult cooking garlic did not help. More substances were needed for a cleansing ritual. Oliver Twist continued to inspire horrific fear in me.

Expectedly, the endless scenes of gloom, of poverty, of sleaziness, of dreariness had been haunting my conception of Dickens. But now, with my new distance as a relatively well-read adult, I had become more ready to enjoy Dickens’ fiction. In particular because, in parallel to the text, I have been listening to a brilliant audio edition in which the reader would dramatize very effectively the various voices. Oliver Twist presented as an auditory high relief made me laugh several times. Superb humour cast a different light on the author’s stereotypes and exaggerations. And Dickens’s formidable command of a literary and lively language exerted an accompanying redeeming effect.

But the humour and the exquisite language were present in the other Dickens novels I have read recently. What is different in Oliver, and awoke the ghosts of angst from my youth, was the force with which it conveys the feeling of being trapped. No matter what turn of plot lighted a gleam of hope upon poor little Oliver—obviously and easily a projection of my alter ego-- the dreadful encroaching and stultifying doom always hit back. The humour and quaint taste of Dickens’s prose were dampened in this novel by the notion that any new ray of brightness that might save a victim out of his/her ambushed life would eventually dispel.

In addition, the greater tragic elements brought in towards the end before one could attain the restoring Happy End conferred to this novel a greater terrifying resonance. My reading ceremony proved then a harder venture than anticipated. The youthful anxieties had a perdurable nature and I had to rely to a greater extent in Dickens’s literary wings to be able to take off and leave my cage of preconceptions well behind.

I’ve just finished Oliver Twist after doing a slow read with the Dickensian group. This is a great way to experience Dickens. This was Dickens’s first novel and was written when he was still quite young. He introduced themes and character types that would reappear throughout his work, though more finely tuned: the sad state of the poor in England, the sorry state of the legal system, the sad circumstances of fallen women who have no chance, the squalor of the slums that corrupts everything within. And then the almost angelic Oliver, more than a child, a seeming symbol of good.

This was my first time reading Oliver Twist so there were many surprises as I encountered episodes and characters that were unexpected from what little I had absorbed from general knowledge picked up through simply being alive for the past 70 years, watching movie ads and reading reviews, etc. As always, the book is always more full.

I can see Dickens developing the skills that he will use in his later novels, but still less developed here. And his sentimentality overwhelms the end of the novel. But still, this book shows so well what is to come.

Read for school*
Not one of my absolute favourite classics but overall it was a really enjoyable read! Interested to see what's said about it in my Victorian literature class!

"أرجوك سيدى ..أعطنى مزيد من الحساء"
"تطلب المزيد أيها الوغد الصغير ..سوف تنتهى حياتك على حبل المشنقة قريبا هيا أخرج من هنا "
هذا مافعله خادم الملجأ فى أوليفر بعدما ارتكب جريمه طلب المزيد من الحساء حبسه فى غرفه العقاب المظلمه

اوليفر تويست "روايه خالده تعتبر رمز للطفولة البائسة والشقيه المليئة بالالام والمتاعب ..ينشأ يتيم
لايعرف له اهلا .. يربى فى الملجأ ثم يهرب منه ليقع فى يد عصابه من اللصوص والنشالين بقياده يهودى
لاضمير له يجند الاطفال ويعلمهم النشل ..شخص جبان وماكر..يلتقى أوليفر بافراد العصابه الاطفال البؤساء امثاله
جاك وكنز)الفتى المراوغ الداهيه و(تشالى بيتس )الغلام كثير الضحك والمرح و(نانسى )الفتاه البائسه لاتخلو من
المروءه برغم انحطاطها..وظل اوليفر معهم فى تلك العيشه السوداء التى تقصر العمر الى ان وقع مصادفة فى يد
المستر براونلو والمسز مايلى الذان يعطفان على اوليفر ..هذا بالنسبه للجزء الاول من الروايه
اما الجزء الثانى كان اكثر امتاعا وتشويقا فيه ما آل اليه افراد العصابه وزعيمهم اليهودى وايضا مااصبحت عليه
حياه اوليفر وروز ..النهايه سعيده وتقليديه وبالرغم من ذلك أحببتها

تتشابه حياه اوليفر تويست بحياه المؤلف تشاليز ديكنز الى حد كبير وكانه يتكلم عن طفولته البائسه ايضا
فهو نشأ فقير معدم ينتمى لطبقة قسى عليها الدهر..تراكم الديون على أبيه فزج به الى السجن
يعمل تشالز فى مصنع دهانات للاحذيه ثم ينتقل الى اعمال اكثر مشقه..يأكل مع العمال ويعاشر الأطفال المشردين
و من خلال هذه المشقه منذ الصغير طبيعى جدا ان يكتب قصه مثل هذه بتحليل شائق وسخريه لاذعه من الطبقة العليا
لم يذهب تشالز الى المدرسه سوى أربع سنوات التعليم الاساسى فقط ومع ذلك كتب قصص تعد من اروع قصص الانسانيه

الترجمة جيدة جدا تساعد على انهاء قدر كبير من الروايه فى وقت قصير ...السرد متقن جدا ..ولا تعليق على الحبكة طبعا ممتازه.
والعيب الذى يؤخذ على الرواية ان الاحداث متوقعه جدا مثلها مثل بقيه الاعمال الكلاسيكيه التقليديه الا انى احببتها

Fagin is a great name. And yet Dickens rarely refers to him by his name. He is relentlessly referred to as the Jew. As if his ugliness, his criminality is representative of the entire race. It's like Dickens is pandering to a popular prejudice in order to boost sales. It's a novel the Nazis would have approved of. Zadie Smith was scathing in her portrait of Dickens in her novel The Fraud and reading this I had a better understanding of why. The irony perhaps is Fagin (and all the other criminal characters) is infinitely more compelling than Oliver, innocence personified, or Rose, unadulterated virtue, as a character. Dickens splits the world into good and wicked with Nancy, the prostitute, as a kind of go-between. The result is the corrupt low-life characters provide all the books vitality. Probably not the outcome Dickens wanted. All this said, I think every novel should be evaluated on its literary merit, not its political correctness. Dickens is a fabulous storyteller and I greatly enjoyed this.

I always thought Carol Reed must have had a pretty easy time of it in making 'Oliver!' back in the late '60s, what with Dickens already having done the hard work in putting this, his second novel, together 130 years earlier. But as it turns out, the book is pants, and if Reed had stuck with the original story and dialogue I can't imagine it would have enjoyed nearly the success it did. I had high hopes for this book, having read and enjoyed three Dickens novels in the past. But the plot was contrived, the story overlong, the emotions manipulated (so, so HORRIBLY manipulated) and the dialogue almost hilariously melodramatic. Plus, it was disgracefully anti-semitic (like, honestly - just... wow). It's hard to believe this came from the same hand that had written The Pickwick Papers only a couple of years earlier. I stuck with it to the end, but only just. A surprisingly poor effort, which deserves to be remembered far less than the 1968 musical.

So, well played, Carol. Your movie was superior to Dickens' book in every way.

Oliver Twist is the darkest and most depressing novel by Dickens that I have read by far. It brings you some of the wickedest and most villainous characters to life. I'm surprised that Dickens had wanted to weave a tale of thieves, robbers, and murders in his very second novel, but he has taken that step and was successful. The story is a bold attempt to bring to life one of the corrupt sections of society that prey on one of the most innocent sections of the society, the homeless children, to assist carry out their wicked deeds.

In this story, as much as Dickens wanted to expose the villainy of some sections of society, he also wanted to expose the position of orphan children. The charitable institutions that cared for them were run by pompous and cold men who ill-treated them for being nobodies. The children in these places had to face many hardships and brutalities. Some survive them, some others pay with life, and some run away. These runaway children become the prey of gangs of robbers, thieves, and murderers, who catch them artfully and train them to assist in their crimes. It was just horrible.

For a reader with a weaker stomach, I just couldn't go through the cruelties exercised against helpless children which were so deliberately described. It was so depressing. The wicked characters of Sikes, Fagin, and Monks take the center stage. So, what we read for the most part are their dark and villainous deeds. But on and off, Dickens brings some rays of sunshine through the kind and generous acts of Mr. Brownlow and the Maylies.

This is the first Dickens novel I have read that which the protagonist takes backstage and lets the other actors play the role of defining him and explaining his story. I wasn't too happy with this change of style of Dickens. Some readers may find the novelty welcoming. But for my part, that very style stopped me from forming any attachment to Oliver. He didn't enter into my warm feelings. I only sympathized with him from a distance.

In Oliver Twist, I was surprised to find a weak plot for a Dickens novel. It had its sparks here and there with adequate drama and melodrama. But overall, the whole performance of the story somewhat lacked colour. And it was a sad story through and through with a rushed happy ending that wasn't truly felt.

Yes, but what became of Oliver? Let me tell you. He became Oliver Twisted. That’s what. He became Battersea’s premier caulker—that is, someone who seals gaps in drywall with waterproof sealant. But Fagin’s influence seeped into poor Oliver’s caulking duties. Instead of sealant, he would put sea lions, banana skins and discount copies of the musical Oliver! Homeowners would thrash in their beds to the bleating of moribund sea lions. Houses would slip away from their districts into horrible places like Wales or Scotland. People were driven mad listening to Lionel Bart’s appalling musical numbers (with no apologies to Paul Bryant). Yes, Oliver was a rotter and no mistake. He was later dismissed from the Caulking Co. and set up a whelk stall in the East End where he met Bianca, a flame-haired human foghorn whose face was so mottled with freckles she became one oblate spheroid human freckle, living off a diet of hydrocortisone smoothies and Diprobase pasties. You didn’t think Oliver would grow up good? Please! You don’t endure a childhood of ritual abuse and become a huggable hunk. You milk it for all its worth (naming no names—Dave Pelzer) or become a corrupt caulker. I am loving Dickens right now. I also love The Vaselines. And I also love Eugenius. Ciao ciao.

I really enjoyed Oliver Twist. This one was just a good story no overwriting anywhere. Whew! Thank goodness! Unsuspected twists and turns and characters that are so lively they jump off the page. Creative ways of describing things. I could actually see myself rereading this one, but I'll be continuing on to try to get through more of the ones I haven't read. I highly recommend it.

So, after years of watching "Oliver"the musical every year round about Xmas time, I've finally, finally read the book from whence the idea came from. I'm a huge fan of all the singing and dancing in the film, and although Oliver is probably one of my least favourite characters, it's certainly still worth the watch.

The book, however, seemed very different, and there was definitely more of a sombre tone, as Dickens tells his story based around London's poverty stricken society. Dickens wholesome descriptions of atmosphere and characters really made this an entertaining read for me.

It is very easy to have empathy with Oliver, who is passed from pillar to post while suffering from extreme poverty. There is a good measure of characters that are good and evil, with some evil which definitely have some good, but rather deep down.

Fagin is one of my favourite characters. Ron Moody did a great portrayal of him in the film. I feel Fagin has had the short straw in life, and actually, he's nothing like Bill Sykes, as he is a different kettle of fish altogether. I'm relieved he was punished for Nancy's murder, although, it was brutally told.

The only problem that prevents me from giving five stars, is Dickens stereotypical attitude of Fagin. He repeatedly refers to him as "Jew" which really, I found concerning, as I would have thought a man such as Dickens, wouldn't call judgement like that.

Overall though, this was a wonderful, well-written book, and it's made me want to watch one of my favourite musicals early!

Beams of Brillance

Let’s start off with a confession: Oliver Twist is boring. Good…we got that out of the way.

While the plot is tolerable, it can be very slow paced. For example, in one vignette, a dying woman has a confession to make. But it took an entire chapter to get there. Come on! Just spit it out already!

So don’t bother reading this book, right?

Well, don’t be hasty, my friend.

It is important to note that Oliver Twist was only Charles Dickens’s second novel so Dickens had not yet fully tuned his storytelling skills. For proof of this, take a look at the clumsy and disorienting first line of Oliver Twist:

Among other public buildings in the town of Mudfog, it boasts of one which is common to most towns great or small, to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse that was born on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events, the item of morality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

Later, Charles Dickens would go on to pen some of the most famous opening lines in all of history:

I am born. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages show. – David Copperfield

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times […] – A Tale of Two Cities

Although storytelling is king, there are extraordinary elements in Oliver Twist. Dickens has such a fantastic way of writing morally grey characters—good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things. He utilizes humor and dialect to fashion memorable characters. Admittedly, I was still scratching my head when Noah Claypole reappeared later in the novel, struggling to remember who he was.

Additionally, Oliver Twist tackles some very serious social justice issues, the English version of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (yes I know TGOW was written well after Oliver Twist). In Oliver Twist, young Oliver is born in a workhouse. He was given one bowl of watered-down food per day and horribly mistreated. Death rates were quite high in these workhouses with conditions causing Oliver to run away. After various tribulations, Oliver falls in with a sordid crowd, and the reader follows Oliver’s adventures.

This book highlighted the plight of the downtrodden and unfortunate especially the vulnerability of children, leading to the reform of the 1834 Poor Law in England, a beautiful example of how literature, an idea, can spark transformation and make the world a better place.

And last but not least…….

Let’s talk about the tone of the novel and how Dickens pulled off the impossible. At 12 years old, Charles Dickens’s father fell on hard times financially, and the family (including Charles) went to debtor’s prison. Charles worked 10-hour days in a warehouse to help his family. This novel was personal to him. He wrote about what he knew, and yet the tone isn’t jaded or heavy-handed. Dickens even throws in a bit of humor. A truly dazzling case of showing the reader a harrowing ordeal without sliding into the (rightly justified) bitterness of the experience.

Recommended for: die-hard Charles Dickens fans, writers, fans of social justice, and if you heart slow paced books

How much I spent:
Softcover text (Penguin Classics version) - $7.99 from Amazon
Audiobook – 1 Audible Credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or rough $9.56 per credit)

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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