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A review by marigold_bookshelf
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
5.0
One more non-Indian literature post this week, and another good genealogical reason behind it. I recently discovered that one of my great grandfathers (Frederick Marshall) was, like Oliver Twist, born in a Victorian Workhouse (the Tynemouth Union Workhouse, 1883). So, I decided to re-read Dicken’s novel to get a feel of what that might have been like.
In 19th Century Britain workhouses, or “poor houses”, were charitable establishments in which the destitute were given shelter and food, usually in return for manual work. In the novel, Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse and remains there as an orphan after the death of his mother. In the case of my great grandfather, he was born to a single mother and it is quite likely that she gave birth in the workhouse after having been evicted from the family home, to avoid the shame associated with having an unmarried pregnant daughter.
Both Oliver Twist and Frederick Marshall grew up without parents. In the case of my great grandfather, we don’t know who his father might have been and after leaving the workhouse his mother abandoned him to the care of her older brother. With respect to Oliver, he escaped from his workhouse to become trapped in the dark underworld of petty criminals in Victorian London.
Like all of Dicken’s work, the reader is submersed in the atmosphere of the time, accompanied by a cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters. As with many novels of the time, Oliver Twist was originally published in instalments (from 1837 to 1839), so it is no surprise to finish a chapter with the reader’s interest piqued for the start of the following one. That, and Dicken’s descriptions and use of language, make it a joy to read.
In 19th Century Britain workhouses, or “poor houses”, were charitable establishments in which the destitute were given shelter and food, usually in return for manual work. In the novel, Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse and remains there as an orphan after the death of his mother. In the case of my great grandfather, he was born to a single mother and it is quite likely that she gave birth in the workhouse after having been evicted from the family home, to avoid the shame associated with having an unmarried pregnant daughter.
Both Oliver Twist and Frederick Marshall grew up without parents. In the case of my great grandfather, we don’t know who his father might have been and after leaving the workhouse his mother abandoned him to the care of her older brother. With respect to Oliver, he escaped from his workhouse to become trapped in the dark underworld of petty criminals in Victorian London.
Like all of Dicken’s work, the reader is submersed in the atmosphere of the time, accompanied by a cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters. As with many novels of the time, Oliver Twist was originally published in instalments (from 1837 to 1839), so it is no surprise to finish a chapter with the reader’s interest piqued for the start of the following one. That, and Dicken’s descriptions and use of language, make it a joy to read.