One of my favourite classic stories. I loved the book and also the film. Doesn't get much better than this. Pure nostalgia.

Es el cuarto Dickens que leo en mi vida y el primero que se acerca al estereotipo que tenemos todos en la cabeza de sus novelas por las adaptaciones al cine y televisión que se han echo de sus obras. Si en el club Pickwick me encontré un libro lleno de humor, en historia de dos ciudades una novela histórica o en Grandes esperanzas un libro mas complejo en trama y temas que se tocan aquí no hay duda y si tenemos esos personajes que viven en la miseria , perseguidos sin misericordia por su situación de pobreza por el sistema legal y social de la época. Los que penséis que al haber visto adaptaciones tenéis trillado el argumento de este libro deciros que merece la pena darle una lectura a pesar de sus 600 páginas y descubrir muchos personajes y situaciones que en las películas se dejan de lado porque sería necesario un mayor tiempo que el que permiten 2 horas de metraje. Me ha gustado mucho y no le doy las 5 estrellas porque es cierto que en mi opinión la forma en la que se cierra el circulo y todos los personajes de la historia terminan entrando en contacto me parece muy cogida con pinzas pero sin duda es una novela que te engancha como todas las de este autor.

Dear Oliver,



Dear Ending,

Charles Dickens is one of the THE big names in literature - and rightfully so. From the versatility of his stories to his lavishly gorgeous writing style, he was a master penman and tale-weaver.

Oliver Twist must be one of the most famous of his stories - it's also one of the shortest / most fast-paced ones.
The story is simple, yet twisted: a baby is brought up in a workhouse (orphanage that puts the children to work eventually). After 9 years, he's taken to the actual workhouse and then, basically, sold. Since there are a lot of bad people and he is a naive boy, he eventually ends up with a criminal gang in London.
But his past (parentage) catches up with him so he ends up fighting to get out of the gutters and out of the clutches of an evil criminal gang leader. Whether or not he succeeds, you ask? Well, read the book and find out. ;P

There is a lot of darkness in this book. From women cashing in on orphans and letting them starve as well as fat clergymen stuffing their pockets while also letting children starve to masters beating their apprentices half to death, scheming people and remorseless criminals - we got the worst of the worst here.
Shining through were the very few people, therefore, that were actually halfway decent to Oliver and kids like him. But not only were they few and far in between, they were also too passive (for my modern sensitivities).

Regardless, the book addresses many social imbalances and mistakes of the political system, which makes this a very daring and important tool for reform. In fact, not too long after this book's publication (and success), there were indeed outcries and changes!

Some characters have been ... discussed. *lol* Fagin most of all, I guess. And to a certain degree, I see why. He's terrible for sure, but not all fault can be laid to his feet alone. The problems were systemic and that system enabled a man like him - who, in turn, enabled others like Sikes. Dickens had a very nice / strong way of showcasing exactly that.

I was honestly surprised how much I even believed the remorseful characters here. Depending on the crime(s), I'm not exactly the forgiving type, you see. It seems that neither was Dickens (if how some characters ended was anything to go by). Bwahahahahahaha! Then again, he did let some characters better themselves for real while also showing that any effort to be kind and generous was utterly futile / wasted with others. Balance! I appreciated that a lot.

The writing was very descriptive, while not exhaustingly so. Dickens was known for very lavish descriptions of both places and people, but this book was somehow "slimmer" while not losing any of the writing's beauty that one can expect from this author.

I think I have a new favourite Dickens novel despite Oliver making me slap my own forehead a few times!

Oliver Twist THE BOOK is crap and has NO songs in it, I couldn't believe it. So I googled and get this, it turns out they put those in the movie and Dickens had nothing to do with it! But since they were the best bit of the film, you can understand my horror and bereft sense of disappointment when I finally came to pick up the book.

How could Dickens NOT have thought of having little Oliver sing Where Is Love when chucked into the cellar or Who Will Buy This Loverly Morning when he wakes up in his posh house...I mean yeah he was supposed to be good wasn't he? And please note the edition I read was not a Readers Digest Condensed Edition. When you DON'T have Fagin capering about warbling "In this life one thing counts/ In the bank, large amounts/I'm afraid these don't grow on trees/You got to pick a pocket or two" with that pederastic twinkle in his eyes as he surveys his small boys then alas I'm sorry to say that what you're left with is a bit of an antisemitic caricature lashed to a morality tale whose immoral moral appears to be that rich is good, poor is bad, and you better get yourself a deus ex machina in the form of a very unlikely sugardaddy to magic you out of the poorhouse or the rats will eat your bollocks, your bones will turn to dust and be blown away and no one will ever hire cute kids to pretend to be you on stage or screen and melt our hearts and win Oscars and Tonys. Which I think we all knew.

Edição de 1984, amarelada e a revelar as agruras do tempo, que guardo com o maior carinho. Foi o meu primeiro livro "sério", e foi muito por sua causa que me meti nesta coisa dos livros e por aqui andarei até sempre. Já me apaixonei por outras personagens de Dickens, por todas elas abracei o sofrimento nesta sua maneira tão própria de nos revelar as angustias dos mais desafortunados.
Todos me deixaram o coração cheio, mas nenhum como este piqueno, Oliver Twist será sempre o meu menino de estimação.

Born to a single mother who gave birth secretly, Oliver Twist seemed to have a dim future. The charities that cared for him, convinced that sooner or later he would end up on the gallows like all the beings of his generation, barely gave him enough to survive (and were indignant as it should be at the lack of gratitude for their sacrifices).
We then try to get rid of his bulky stomach when he reaches the apprentice's age. If he escapes an unscrupulous chimney sweep, he eventually ends up with an undertaker. His life is not improving by it: his orphan status and assistance designate him from the outset as guilty in all the conflicts that concern him, making him the company's dead weight. He decides one evening to flee to London to improve his lot. But he only finds a bunch of thieves there, determined to take advantage of his naivety to pull off some juicy shots.
The novel is very close to the philosophical tale in several aspects. First of all, the Manichaeism of the characters: the good guys are only described by qualities, the bad guys only by faults (and they are inexcusable on top of that), and even if some have found themselves on the wrong side by a twist of fate, we know at first glance where our sympathy should go, and who we should hate. But, then, the plot fills with twists and turns and less credible drama: despite England's extent, the protagonists always fall on the right person at the right time. We must admit that sometimes, we border the romance of series B.
Despite these minor flaws, it is easy to get carried away by the author's pen. However, humor is omnipresent in history, and the criticism of the laws on poverty, the lack of aid to the peasants, and the hypocrisy of philanthropists are severe (ah, those poor people who persist in starving while people of good society assured them that they had something to eat, what a scandal!)
Therefore, a novel contains good feelings and relatively simple mechanics. But Oliver Twist is an excellent read if you're in a frame where you want to see the good guys rewarded and the bad guys punished.

[italiano sotto]
The Hand of the King

At some point, a character perceives the presence of «a stronger hand than chance».

Mr. Brownlow implies it is the hand of God, we may think it is the hand of the author.
Who cares? It is a strong hand.
If you like lighter hands (in plot, characters, style), this is not the book for you. Here we can find: a lot of unlikely encounters in the middle of a big city; a bunch of extreme characters (from angelic girls to ugly and wicked old men); and a frequent display of that form of irony that presents terrible situations and horrible people as if they were good and logical (in short, the perfect form for the denunciation of hypocrisy).
In other books he may use it better, but I like Dickens’s hand.

In the serial edition (1837-1839), Oliver was born in Mudfog, so in a sense the novel was a continuation of the previous satirical text: the n  Mudfog Papersn.

Geografia e storia picaresca

Uno dei piaceri - un po' da turista - della lettura del romanzo è la possibilità di individuare i luoghi e di seguire molti spostamenti sulle mappe di Londra. Ad esempio, quando Oliver è costretto a collaborare al furto notturno di Bill Sikes, il lungo percorso attraverso Londra (da est a ovest, quindi dalla zona più povera a quella più ricca, uscendo poi dalla città) è ampiamente particolareggiato. Si nominano Bethnal Green Road, Barbican, Smithfield, con grande descrizione del mercato del bestiame; Hosier Lane, Holborn, Hyde Park Corner, Kensington; poi si prosegue su carri: Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford, Hampton, fino a Lower Halliford e Shepperton. Ci vogliono quasi due giorni.
All'inizio del capitolo 50, invece, c'è un inizio straordinario, con descrizione della degradatissima area di Jacob’s Island, vicino al fiume, ma il luogo è ormai così completamente trasformato che non si può più seguire Dickens passo per passo. Si potrà però ritrovare un simile mondo di bordo fiume, terribile e affascinante, all’inizio del bellissimo Our mutual friend.



Noticine di lettura e traduzione

Adesso sono sicuro: l'avevo già letto. Strana e piacevole sensazione: ad ogni capitolo riemergevano pezzi di memoria di quell'antica lettura dimenticata: sensazioni, immagini mentali delle stanze di Fagin, ad esempio; e però non sarei stato in grado di anticipare nulla su quanto succede nei capitoli successivi. Apparentemente era tutto cancellato, ma poi passo dopo passo qualche altro brandello saltava fuori.
Chissà quanto tempo fa lo lessi. Mi ricordo che girava in casa, quando ero bambino, un edizione in due volumetti con la copertina rigida, rossa. Forse, però, non ero nemmeno arrivato fino alla fine: dagli ultimi capitoli non è riemerso nessun ricordo. E probabilmente era anche una edizione parzialmente tagliata e depotenziata, come tante ne giravano.
Stavolta ho letto l'originale, ma cercando un confronto su qualche punto più difficile nella copia che ho in casa (una «Bur ragazzi» che hanno regalato a mio figlio) ho scoperto che è quasi un adattamento. C'è scritto traduzione di Rossana Guarnieri, e ovviamente non c'è nessuna nota al testo, ma sono frequenti i tagli e le riduzioni; ad esempio tutti gli elementi di metanarrazione (come l’inizio del cap. 17) sono cancellati; così come tutti gli elementi più coloriti, i riferimenti a modi di dire, a usanze del passato o difficilmente trasportabili in italiano e così via vengono semplicemente eliminati. Da un certo punto in poi mi sono procurato quindi la traduzione di Bruno Amato per Feltrinelli, che invece mi sembra davvero buona.

When life gives me a realist book written in the Victorian era, with a gang of misfits, rags to riches, redemption arcs with the depiction of the gruesome unfair treatment in 19th century England based on social status, and criticizing child labor, who am I to not enjoy it?
Review to come.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
n  

n    “There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.” n  

n

Update: A few of my thoughts about this book before I actually decide to write a good review in a few years from now, when I reread the book.

This book, like many other books written by Dickens, was published in serial form in a newspaper(1837-1839) and fully published in 1938 before the ending being concluded in the paper. This means that structurally this book is simple.

The plot is easy to follow, there is a clear portrayal of good and evil here (with a sprinkle of good in evil and evil in good) a depiction of child labor, the corruption of the orphanage, and the staff working there, and an overall unmasking of the social hypocrisy of the 19th century England.

n  

“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper, said Mr. Bumble. So cry away.”

n

It is quite easy to sympathize with Oliver in that environment, as we follow his misadventures from the orphanage to London. There is a mystery along the way along with one of Dicken's favorite tropes  rags to riches  and giving the story a hopeful and happy end, one which was probably nothing but a fantasy to the children of the time.

Nonetheless, this was one of the more intriguing Dicken's novels precisely because the topic is well-chosen and the character is a sympathetic lead.
Personally, the first 40/50 pages were a bit dry but once you get into the story the interest in the plot keeps you invested. Definitely returning to this one in the future.

This book is a lot more dark and grimy than I had expected, it was violent & bleak. While reading it a feeling of having a cloud over my head the entire time would make for a understandable depiction of how it made me feel, it was always grey and cold. A classic book with a host of memorable characters well worth the time it takes to read it.


“The sun – the bright sun, that brings back not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man – burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray. It lighted up the room where the murdered woman lay. It did.”

اعتدنا النِعم؛فهل نشكر؟
لننطلق للعالم السفلى للندن باسراره و متاهاته
لصوصه و ايتامه
الذين يمثلهم اوليفر اشهر أيتام الادب

ذلك الطفل الذي يتيتم منذ ولادته؛ ويحرمه مونكس من ميراثه؛ و يرسله لملجأ رهيب
يقاسي و يعاني فيه اوليفر و يتعذب معه معظم طلبة مدارس الارض؛ في تلك الرواية الثقيلة؛ التي يقرروها علي الاطفال ليدركوا النعمة التي يرفلون فيها

استشعر النعم التي ببن يديك *
*فقد تكون أمنية الف شخص
يهرب اوليفر و ينضم لعصابة اطفال؛ لندرك كم النفاق الاجتماعي الذي غرق فيه المجتمع الانجليزي

لن اعلم ابدا لماذا تعاطفت مع فيليب بطل امال عريضة؟ و مع ديفيد كوبرفيلد اكثر من اوليفر؛ احتمال لانها بعيدة نوعاً عن قصة حياة ديكنز ذات نفسه؛ و لانني درستها انا و ٠٠اولادي بشكل متكرر جع��ني اتعب من سيرته علي مدي عقود

The dawn of the use of social criticism as main plot element while overusing the modern readers' tolerance for suspension of disbelief

by making the whole story a bit too unrealistic optimistic and too full of coincidences, a kind of trademark of Dickens work as he didn´t MacGuffined and Chekhoved enough or mixed different plotlines to make it look more compelling. It would also help if it would be a bit less wooden, stiff, and more dynamic, but not everybody can be a Jane Austen or Mark Twain and it´s not bad, just not the work of a literary genius, but of a person trying to send a message at any cost.

Full of subjective real life inspirations
It´s possibly one of Dickens most autobiographical works, as the had to endure poverty and see the dark sides of society firsthand, but instead of getting bitter, his work became a torchlight of the importance of staying human and positive under the worst conditions while each normal person would have already relinquished or had a mental breakdown.

Subjective reading preferences for English speaking authors
I´m just once again realizing how much I enjoy UK/US classics and literature in general while avoiding especially Central Europe and I have a controversial and very unfriendly theory I already keep repeating throughout my reviewer career and it feels like a rant is coming up.

The review now seems to escalate to trolling against European literature, it must have something to do with bias and stream of consciousness, sorry for that.

There are no past or current European equivalents
Dickens is an institution and shows that, already in the 19th century, UK/US authors dominated the creation of entertaining, good works of fiction. Sorry, Continental Europe, much eccentric philosophical blah yadda and deeper meaning literature just isn´t as entertaining as all the UK/US works, one of the reasons I hardly ever read European authors. Something with fantastic realism and cultural heritage went terribly wrong and created a reading culture and literature notorious for its boring, reader hostile, and arrogant sociopathic style, absolutely not caring about what the vast majority of readers like. Shame on you. Ok, if I can´t sleep or want to make myself angry and sad it´s the literature of choice, but in all other cases, no thank you.
The funny thing is that it´s the same situation now as it was hundreds of years ago, European literature just sucks, and the snobby attitude towards pseudo intellectual garbage or poorly written trivial literature seems to have epigenetically poisoned most countries. And transformed them into toxic literature wastelands fueled by the tears and screams of the poor pupils and students forced to read this trash while the same happy students in English speaking countries can enjoy great entertainment as part of their education.

Look at the completely different approaches:
European writer: I want to make high brow, over the top, eccentric, weird, impossible to understand Nobel prize material, glorify myself and my intellect, and integrate much of my personal bias in it to impress critics with similar, restricted mindsets.
UK/US writer: I want to use the rules of the writing game to create epic, timeless pieces that are both entertaining and have a message.
If someone would create music or paintings the same way, one could immediately hear and see the ugliness and the underlying incompetence, sadly that´s not possible with literature.

Personal nightmare
I imagine waking up in purgatory, first thinking it´s heaven because it´s an endless library, then realizing it´s just Eurotrash literature, laughing louder and louder while madness kicks in and crying takes over in waves over my tormented soul while the demons are coming closer to fix me to A Clockwork Orange style force reading machine.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...