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spaceodin's review against another edition
Can writers atone for writing stereotypes, even if they’re well-intentioned stereotypes? Can we discern intention from writers who are long dead, whose stories have been adapted endlessly?
koreilly's review against another edition
3.0
Not as good the Contract with God trilogy but still good. Eisner's bread and butter is early 20th Century New York where the melting pot atmosphere is enhanced by his cartoonish characters. His broad, heavy story beats work within the frames of his own narratives but wiggling his way into the world of Charles Dickens (including a character who is actually the author Charles Dickens) serves to highlight some of his shortcomings. Also, why does he have to give all the British women messed up teeth? C'mon Will that's an unfair stereotype which is what you're supposed to be fighting here.
dajna's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like Oliver Twist when I was a kid, and I don't like it now. Not even in this alternative form.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
To the best of my memory I've never read Oliver Twist! or seen any media version of it. I read this because it was Will Eisner. And the library had a copy. On it was just great. The context set in both forward and afterward added a lot. But really even without any of this, it would have been a good book. The art was just plain terrific, distinctive, descriptive, the characters differentiable. Many of the characters were not especially attractive neither in looks nor action. This is a view of life in England for Ashkenazi Jews that I was just plain unfamiliar with. And eventually Oliver Twist appears. Really this almost makes me want to pick up Dickens. Perhaps the library has other Eisner that I haven't read that I'll read instead.
jasonfurman's review against another edition
3.0
A graphic novel that re-tells the pre-story and story of Oliver Twist from Fagin's perspective. The first half tells the story of Moses Fagin, an Ashkenazi Jewish boy born in London in tough circumstances who gets a number of opportunities to be honest and succeed but each time gets unfairly fired or framed/convicted/transported and the like, moving further down the rungs of society and further into crime. In many cases he is victimized because he is Jewish. This story is in many ways like Oliver Twist's story, except with more setbacks, a broader social critique, and--of course--without the happy ending. I found this half interesting, especially the depiction of Jewish life in London and the distinction between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews (Will Eisner surmises that Fagan was the former but that Cruikshank drew him as the later, the difference was the former at the time were more recent arrivals in England and lower class and less assimilated).
The second half becomes a retelling of Oliver Twist that is pretty much completely consistent with Dickens but presents a somewhat more complex and tortured psychology for Fagin who is depicted as more trapped by his lot and genuinely protective of his boys than Dickens presents him to be. It does not contradict Dickens but expands on it, slightly.
The artwork in both halves was generally excellent, especially Fagin as he ages and the emotion shown in his face. All nicely Victorian period and expressive. Except Nancy who looks very odd.
The book has a preface and afterward about stereotypes in cartoons where Eisner confesses his guilt at creating the stereotyped black figure of Ebony in The Spirit, talks about why cartoonists do stereotypes, but also the harm they cause in reinforcing these stereotypes. He concludes that Dickens did not mean harm but that he did substantial harm by labelling Fagin "the Jew" in a way he did not, for example, label Sikes "The Christian."
Very worth reading but a little didactic in the point it is focused on making.
The second half becomes a retelling of Oliver Twist that is pretty much completely consistent with Dickens but presents a somewhat more complex and tortured psychology for Fagin who is depicted as more trapped by his lot and genuinely protective of his boys than Dickens presents him to be. It does not contradict Dickens but expands on it, slightly.
The artwork in both halves was generally excellent, especially Fagin as he ages and the emotion shown in his face. All nicely Victorian period and expressive. Except Nancy who looks very odd.
The book has a preface and afterward about stereotypes in cartoons where Eisner confesses his guilt at creating the stereotyped black figure of Ebony in The Spirit, talks about why cartoonists do stereotypes, but also the harm they cause in reinforcing these stereotypes. He concludes that Dickens did not mean harm but that he did substantial harm by labelling Fagin "the Jew" in a way he did not, for example, label Sikes "The Christian."
Very worth reading but a little didactic in the point it is focused on making.
cafedetinta's review against another edition
4.0
Revisión del clásico Oliver Twist contada desde el punto de vista de Fagin. Si te gusta Will Eisner, merece la pena.
alterjpt's review against another edition
5.0
Will Eisner está para além dos adjectivos, mas como falar dele sem os usar? Este Fagin le juif (Delcourt, 2004) é um livro extraordinário. Artisticamente é sumptuoso - poderia ser de outro modo? Sendo a obra um diálogo crítico com "Oliver Twist", o mundo de Dickens, tão gráfico ele próprio, é eisnerizado de um modo tal que somos brindados com um universo coerente mas que reclama uma dupla paternidade. Enriquecedora. Só por este exemplo máximo do mundo de Eisner o livro é imperdível.
Mas há mais. Eisner reentra em Oliver Twist, convocando o próprio Dickens à liça. E nisso desmonta os preconceitos anti-semitas carregados pelo autor. Pois este, arquétipo da inquietação com a "questão social", fonte de tanta denúncia literária, jornalística e filosófica da injustiça social, enredava-se no preconceito prejudicial (passa a aparente redundância) face aos judeus, estigmatizados nesta personagem "Fagin". Assim demonstrando a hierarquia das preocupações sociais de então. E, como Eisner diz, até pela penetração na literatura infantil que "Oliver Twist" veio a ter (sua desvalorização no senso comum?), assim contribuindo para reprodução continuada de estereótipos racistas. Dickens homem do seu tempo? Não só, pois ele próprio evoluindo a sua concepção, disso consciente, como o mostraram as suas tentativas de retrabalhar a figura de Fagin, o velho judeu, em edições posteriores de Oliver Twist (tentativas infrutíferas, dado o enorme sucesso inicial da obra, obstando à sua substituição). Nisso, porventura, indiciando também alguma mudança à época das concepções sobre judeus nos meios letrados britânicos.
Mas na limpeza que Eisner faz não há traço do mero correctismo. Há um recontar da história, olhando-a de outro modo, olhando os contextos de formação dos indivíduos, não como desculpabilizadores/desresponsabilizadores (o que é isso da "culpa", da "responsabilidade"?) mas como enquadradores das opções e dos percursos. Assim longe do essencialismo dickensiano (de que a personagem Twist é exemplo máximo), um atender aos contextos, à gente formada nas circunstâncias. Para além do aparente bem e mal. Gente boa e má, não boa ou má.
Óbvio se torna que é também produto (como não o poderia ser?) de uma visão sociologicamente muito mais rica do que a que lhe é um século e meio anterior - assim ficando exemplo de como a leitura racialista, racista, essencialista, é acima de tudo uma leitura ignorante, iletrada, ainda que tantas vezes treslida.
https://ma-schamba.blogs.sapo.pt/1561675.html
Mas há mais. Eisner reentra em Oliver Twist, convocando o próprio Dickens à liça. E nisso desmonta os preconceitos anti-semitas carregados pelo autor. Pois este, arquétipo da inquietação com a "questão social", fonte de tanta denúncia literária, jornalística e filosófica da injustiça social, enredava-se no preconceito prejudicial (passa a aparente redundância) face aos judeus, estigmatizados nesta personagem "Fagin". Assim demonstrando a hierarquia das preocupações sociais de então. E, como Eisner diz, até pela penetração na literatura infantil que "Oliver Twist" veio a ter (sua desvalorização no senso comum?), assim contribuindo para reprodução continuada de estereótipos racistas. Dickens homem do seu tempo? Não só, pois ele próprio evoluindo a sua concepção, disso consciente, como o mostraram as suas tentativas de retrabalhar a figura de Fagin, o velho judeu, em edições posteriores de Oliver Twist (tentativas infrutíferas, dado o enorme sucesso inicial da obra, obstando à sua substituição). Nisso, porventura, indiciando também alguma mudança à época das concepções sobre judeus nos meios letrados britânicos.
Mas na limpeza que Eisner faz não há traço do mero correctismo. Há um recontar da história, olhando-a de outro modo, olhando os contextos de formação dos indivíduos, não como desculpabilizadores/desresponsabilizadores (o que é isso da "culpa", da "responsabilidade"?) mas como enquadradores das opções e dos percursos. Assim longe do essencialismo dickensiano (de que a personagem Twist é exemplo máximo), um atender aos contextos, à gente formada nas circunstâncias. Para além do aparente bem e mal. Gente boa e má, não boa ou má.
Óbvio se torna que é também produto (como não o poderia ser?) de uma visão sociologicamente muito mais rica do que a que lhe é um século e meio anterior - assim ficando exemplo de como a leitura racialista, racista, essencialista, é acima de tudo uma leitura ignorante, iletrada, ainda que tantas vezes treslida.
https://ma-schamba.blogs.sapo.pt/1561675.html
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Wow! This is what happens when a successful comic artist acknowledges the harm of type characters. He examines the roles of social circumstances and antisemitism in the untold story of Fagin before Oliver Twist. I greatly enjoyed this, and the afterward examining the role works of fiction often play in perpetuating bias is amazing. Eisner even aknowledges his own harmful character types and what he's learned since.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Murder, Grief, Classism, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, and Confinement
Moderate: Suicide
Capital punishmentbrizreading's review against another edition
4.0
Essentially fanfic that tries to correct some of the blatantly anti-Semitic stereotyping in Dickens.
This is my third Eisner (after this and this), and I think I like this one least so far. The writing risks teetering into heavy-handedness a few times, and I found the pacing a bit whirlwind. We follow Moses Fagin - who would become the infamous "Fagin the Jew" of Oliver Twist - from his birth, through various misfortunes, until he gets to his present position. It's incredibly interesting from the historical perspective: I didn't know, for example, that the British Jewish community - at least of the 19th century - was made up of established, wealthier Sephardic Jews who had immigrated in the 15th century (?), and poorer Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated from eastern Europe following the 19th century pogroms. Industrial Revolution-era London is also always fascinating from a development economist's perspective.
But! In addition to the writing and pacing, I also preferred Eisner's art in the New York City stories: the lines are sharper, cleaner, bolder. Here, everything is watery and blurred: sometimes this is evocative and nice, such as the panels of Fagin at the docks (with the monochrome watercolors fading with the perspective, as look over bobbing ships, seagulls, and the water - v nice), or the panel of Fagin with the locket portrait of his younger self (this panel also dripped with schmaltz, though).
This is my third Eisner (after this and this), and I think I like this one least so far. The writing risks teetering into heavy-handedness a few times, and I found the pacing a bit whirlwind. We follow Moses Fagin - who would become the infamous "Fagin the Jew" of Oliver Twist - from his birth, through various misfortunes, until he gets to his present position. It's incredibly interesting from the historical perspective: I didn't know, for example, that the British Jewish community - at least of the 19th century - was made up of established, wealthier Sephardic Jews who had immigrated in the 15th century (?), and poorer Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated from eastern Europe following the 19th century pogroms. Industrial Revolution-era London is also always fascinating from a development economist's perspective.
But! In addition to the writing and pacing, I also preferred Eisner's art in the New York City stories: the lines are sharper, cleaner, bolder. Here, everything is watery and blurred: sometimes this is evocative and nice, such as the panels of Fagin at the docks (with the monochrome watercolors fading with the perspective, as look over bobbing ships, seagulls, and the water - v nice), or the panel of Fagin with the locket portrait of his younger self (this panel also dripped with schmaltz, though).
crowyhead's review against another edition
3.0
I know it's probably sacrilege to say so, but I realized while reading this that I just don't like Eisner's art very much at all. I guess it's just the style I don't like; everyone, even the "beautiful" women, looked very ugly to me, and I guess the style was just generally more cartoony than I usually like. I think I also tend to like more angular forms, and all of Eisner's forms are quite rounded. The story was good, though, and the foreword and afterword were also very interesting.