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abbydee's review against another edition
Wow. I’ve been frolicking through life just assuming I had read Oliver Twist at some point, because after A Christmas Carol, this is probably the Dickens work most people are familiar with. Orphan, poverty, please-sir-can-i-have-some-more. I could have told you that before I started. But this is a wayyyyyy different book than I was expecting.
Oliver Twist is incredibly dark. I’ve read a respectable smattering of Dickens–I knew he could do spooky, knew he always brings the melodrama, knew there is an underlying grittiness to his work and that children never have a good time of it. Oliver Twist in popular parlance is shorthand for a defenseless kid being mistreated or neglected, but what happens in the novel is so much more disturbing to me. More than being abused, children are systematically manipulated into organized crime and used as labor for the black market. They are encouraged toward addiction so that they can be more easily controlled. The ringleader (a person frequently called just “the Jew”...still t-minus 100 years for good Jewish characters from English lit, I guess) sends them on jobs and controls them by his knowledge of what they’ve done. This is Dickens’ cartel novel, and I’ll be honest, for all I knew of Dickens, I would not have expected him to be able to pull that off. But he pulls nary a punch in this one: a person is beaten to death on screen, first with a pistol and then with a wooden club, and the aggressor hangs himself from a height of 35 ft in a very explicit scene. Like, I would not let a young person read this book.
I also wasn’t expecting the geographical precision. He describes London’s underbelly with landmarks, as though giving his readers directions to the Three Cripples pub, to the eavesdropping nook under London Bridge, to Jacob’s Island. I love how much pointless care he puts into describing exactly which roads people take to the suburbs and back and where the posh or seedy neighborhoods are. This is your city, he seems to be saying. You know where I’m talking about. This is happening all around you. This book, more than any of his others I’ve read, establishes Dickens as the urban griot of a particular city. It makes me think about the city I live in, its underbelly and its chroniclers. Who is doing this for Tucson? I have a few answers.
Also, I was today years old when I realized the cartoon Oliver and Company named all its characters after ones from this book. I swear I thought it was just a movie about a cat.
Oliver Twist is incredibly dark. I’ve read a respectable smattering of Dickens–I knew he could do spooky, knew he always brings the melodrama, knew there is an underlying grittiness to his work and that children never have a good time of it. Oliver Twist in popular parlance is shorthand for a defenseless kid being mistreated or neglected, but what happens in the novel is so much more disturbing to me. More than being abused, children are systematically manipulated into organized crime and used as labor for the black market. They are encouraged toward addiction so that they can be more easily controlled. The ringleader (a person frequently called just “the Jew”...still t-minus 100 years for good Jewish characters from English lit, I guess) sends them on jobs and controls them by his knowledge of what they’ve done. This is Dickens’ cartel novel, and I’ll be honest, for all I knew of Dickens, I would not have expected him to be able to pull that off. But he pulls nary a punch in this one: a person is beaten to death on screen, first with a pistol and then with a wooden club, and the aggressor hangs himself from a height of 35 ft in a very explicit scene. Like, I would not let a young person read this book.
I also wasn’t expecting the geographical precision. He describes London’s underbelly with landmarks, as though giving his readers directions to the Three Cripples pub, to the eavesdropping nook under London Bridge, to Jacob’s Island. I love how much pointless care he puts into describing exactly which roads people take to the suburbs and back and where the posh or seedy neighborhoods are. This is your city, he seems to be saying. You know where I’m talking about. This is happening all around you. This book, more than any of his others I’ve read, establishes Dickens as the urban griot of a particular city. It makes me think about the city I live in, its underbelly and its chroniclers. Who is doing this for Tucson? I have a few answers.
Also, I was today years old when I realized the cartoon Oliver and Company named all its characters after ones from this book. I swear I thought it was just a movie about a cat.
bibliotequeish's review against another edition
4.0
Oliver Twist is the perfect example of innocence. He is simply trying to get by without making a splash, yet life knocks him down time and time again.
An orphan from birth Oliver relies on the kindness of strangers, and his all too trusting nature gets him into trouble. This book can be very frustrating, how these adults could take advantage of a small boy, for so long.
In typical Dickens fashion this book deals heavily with social class and the hierarchy within each group, from the upper crust, to the lowest of the low.
daniestr09's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
torihoo's review against another edition
4.0
The only experience I'd ever had with Oliver Twist was the old Disney movie Oliver & Company. Needless to say, the book was very different from the movie. I'd read A Christmas Carol and was honestly not a huge fan of Dickens' writing style, but I really enjoyed this one!
rich71's review against another edition
4.0
Dickens's second published work seems to garner less than enthusiastic reviews by literary reviewers. I found myself swept up in this admitted melodrama quite eagerly. Dickens's work is peppered with amazing coincidence in the plot and this book is no exception. The main characters are all intertwined in the story in unlikely ways, but I really don't feel this detracts from the main point which is the amazing writing, humor, and compassion with which Dickens writes.
The character of Oliver is the essential good of man and the character of Rose is, to my mind, female compassion embodied. They may be slightly transparent and simple, but I don't find this objectionable. I wanted Oliver to be happy and for Rose to find true love, despite her self-sacrifice.
The conclusion is satisfying and left me feeling like the book was wrapped up with finality. There are really no loose ends and I felt this was just fine. Not complex, just final.
A highly recommended read, especially for those looking for an introduction to Dickens. I really enjoyed this one.
The character of Oliver is the essential good of man and the character of Rose is, to my mind, female compassion embodied. They may be slightly transparent and simple, but I don't find this objectionable. I wanted Oliver to be happy and for Rose to find true love, despite her self-sacrifice.
The conclusion is satisfying and left me feeling like the book was wrapped up with finality. There are really no loose ends and I felt this was just fine. Not complex, just final.
A highly recommended read, especially for those looking for an introduction to Dickens. I really enjoyed this one.
louiza_read2live's review against another edition
4.0
I've read Oliver Twist first time in Greek translation when I was in Jr. High in Athens. I didn't remember almost anything about it except that I loved it. It seems that many years later, rereading it in 2019 and in English this time, I still love it.
I love Dickens's humorous and sarcastic criticism on society and religion that make such a sad topic more bearable, but without minimizing in the least the gravity of serious societal issues and abuses; In fact, Dickens's sarcasm emphasizes these issues and brings people's hypocrisy to the surface.
Having said that, the chapters of the interaction between Nancy and Sikes will tear your heart in pieces.
I love Dickens's humorous and sarcastic criticism on society and religion that make such a sad topic more bearable, but without minimizing in the least the gravity of serious societal issues and abuses; In fact, Dickens's sarcasm emphasizes these issues and brings people's hypocrisy to the surface.
Having said that, the chapters of the interaction between Nancy and Sikes will tear your heart in pieces.
anniejoyp's review against another edition
i've had enough of this for now i finished book one so i'm just gonna finish the other two later because i've lost interest
bergsteiger's review against another edition
4.0
Charles Dickens is like a Reuben sandwich. I don't like sauerkraut, rye bread, or swiss cheese and can do without corned beef or thousand island dressing, but a Reuben is one of my favorite things to have for lunch. Likewise, Dickens is garrulous, unsubtle, politicized, and dripping with sentimentality, yet I enjoyed reading this as much as I did Great Expectations.
Dickens is a master storyteller, laying out vivid settings and sprinkling them with very real characters. As I mentioned before he is undoubtedly wordy, causing one to easily get bogged down if they are not particularly fond of the style. And this is where I make my confession. I listened to this one on CD in my car. I felt that if I were to actually try and finish this one before the year ended it was the only way. I quite enjoyed it.
The story itself is about young orphaned Oliver Twist and his youth in London and the nearby countryside. He struggles through the indifference of the church-run system and the seamy underworld of London, eventually emerging with people, while not of the highest stations, definitely the highest moral character.
Ultimately this is a good versus evil story with Oliver himself as the fulcrum for the two sides. On the one there is the repulsive Fagin, brutal Sikes, and scheming Monks, against the astute Mr. Brownlow, and generous Rose Maylie.
If it weren't for the incessant harping on how horrible the formal establishments of the time were and how absolutely neatly tied together the story was at the end this would have been an easy 5 stars. As it were though, I would still heartily recommend this both as a classic and simply as a good story to read by the hearth.
Dickens is a master storyteller, laying out vivid settings and sprinkling them with very real characters. As I mentioned before he is undoubtedly wordy, causing one to easily get bogged down if they are not particularly fond of the style. And this is where I make my confession. I listened to this one on CD in my car. I felt that if I were to actually try and finish this one before the year ended it was the only way. I quite enjoyed it.
The story itself is about young orphaned Oliver Twist and his youth in London and the nearby countryside. He struggles through the indifference of the church-run system and the seamy underworld of London, eventually emerging with people, while not of the highest stations, definitely the highest moral character.
Ultimately this is a good versus evil story with Oliver himself as the fulcrum for the two sides. On the one there is the repulsive Fagin, brutal Sikes, and scheming Monks, against the astute Mr. Brownlow, and generous Rose Maylie.
If it weren't for the incessant harping on how horrible the formal establishments of the time were and how absolutely neatly tied together the story was at the end this would have been an easy 5 stars. As it were though, I would still heartily recommend this both as a classic and simply as a good story to read by the hearth.
thart1994's review against another edition
3.0
This book always makes me sad. So I've only read it the once.