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some_okie_dude27 's review for:
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens had plenty of reasons to be miserable. He grew up in a large, dysfunctional family, constantly on the cusp from poverty, his father was sent to a debtor’s prison, and young Charles was forced to work in a factory job that he hated, constantly surrounded by young people his age who were in worse spots than he was, and it would have a strong impact on his life and writing. Such suffering and adversity might drive anyone mad or to the depths of cynicism or despair, but Dickens never wrote with bitterness, but with joy.
I've heard a few people compare Dickens to Horatio Alger, and if that's the case then they are sorely mistaken. His wit, eye for the follies and ills of humanity, and an acute awareness for social commentary puts him far above his contemporaries, and in many ways authors who work today. Certainly the comparison to Alger could be applicable to Dickens, both often dealt with down and out protagonists finding their ways in life. But out of the two, I found that Dickens had the keener sense of irony. He is self aware, yet never cynical in his critiques and satire and he writes with the eye of a thoughtful entertainer. Alan Moore once mused on how entertainment can be just as profound and beautiful as any form of literature, and that is certainly the case with Dickens, and I'll always point to Dickens as proof of this statement.
Wilde once critiqued Dickens as a romantic sentimentalist, but unlike sentimentalists, Dickens routinely forced his audience to see the horrors and despairs that the real world, and Oliver Twist is no different. The horrors that Oliver is forced to go through is filled with anger and vitriolic satire, and Dickens used his penchant for caricature to satirize the greed and gluttony of the men and women who use child workers for their own ends, while also showing the cyclical nature of crime, particularly with children and neatly personified in the dastardly Bill Sykes. And while Wilde would often revel in his own perceived cleverness, Dickens remains an observer, constantly poking and prodding at the ills of society, but never losing hope and always remaining optimistic of man's nature, even if it is cautious in nature.
Yet Dickens was an entertainer first, and his works are often filled with wild, strange characters, lively and colorful prose, and a neat, if not occasionally long winded, pace. Oliver Twist showcases his knack as a storyteller as he spins a yarn regarding the tale of young Oliver Twist, and it's a story as entertaining, funny, profound, and touching as any other novel that can be read by academia today. It is often funny how they forget that Dickens was the King of his time, and was initially dismissed as popular trash not unlike King has been. Though this is nothing new, many people often tend to discover great talents as time goes along.
One of his few issues is his problem with women. While not exactly a misogynist, there is a constant flatness with his women characters, either having them as neurotic, nagging killjoys or pure, innocent souls who wouldn't hurt a fly, and even sometimes going into cliches like the whore with a heart of gold and such other things, it makes me wish that Dickens had more of the depth and wit that he gave to his male characters to his female characters, but they never feel distracting. There is also the controversy with his character Fagin and if he's an anti-semitic stereotype, but I've never thought so. Fagin, much like Sykes, is a character to be pitied, as they are both men who've felt forced to commit horrible deeds in order to keep themselves alive, though unlike Sykes, he is not a man to be feared, and you feel an amount of pity once he goes through the fate that he does.
Dickens is the rare author who writes a political satire that's actually funny, an entertainer who's not afraid to be enjoyable as well as being intelligent, and a optimistic writer who isn't afraid to have hope, while never stooping into escapism or overt sentimentality.
I've heard a few people compare Dickens to Horatio Alger, and if that's the case then they are sorely mistaken. His wit, eye for the follies and ills of humanity, and an acute awareness for social commentary puts him far above his contemporaries, and in many ways authors who work today. Certainly the comparison to Alger could be applicable to Dickens, both often dealt with down and out protagonists finding their ways in life. But out of the two, I found that Dickens had the keener sense of irony. He is self aware, yet never cynical in his critiques and satire and he writes with the eye of a thoughtful entertainer. Alan Moore once mused on how entertainment can be just as profound and beautiful as any form of literature, and that is certainly the case with Dickens, and I'll always point to Dickens as proof of this statement.
Wilde once critiqued Dickens as a romantic sentimentalist, but unlike sentimentalists, Dickens routinely forced his audience to see the horrors and despairs that the real world, and Oliver Twist is no different. The horrors that Oliver is forced to go through is filled with anger and vitriolic satire, and Dickens used his penchant for caricature to satirize the greed and gluttony of the men and women who use child workers for their own ends, while also showing the cyclical nature of crime, particularly with children and neatly personified in the dastardly Bill Sykes. And while Wilde would often revel in his own perceived cleverness, Dickens remains an observer, constantly poking and prodding at the ills of society, but never losing hope and always remaining optimistic of man's nature, even if it is cautious in nature.
Yet Dickens was an entertainer first, and his works are often filled with wild, strange characters, lively and colorful prose, and a neat, if not occasionally long winded, pace. Oliver Twist showcases his knack as a storyteller as he spins a yarn regarding the tale of young Oliver Twist, and it's a story as entertaining, funny, profound, and touching as any other novel that can be read by academia today. It is often funny how they forget that Dickens was the King of his time, and was initially dismissed as popular trash not unlike King has been. Though this is nothing new, many people often tend to discover great talents as time goes along.
One of his few issues is his problem with women. While not exactly a misogynist, there is a constant flatness with his women characters, either having them as neurotic, nagging killjoys or pure, innocent souls who wouldn't hurt a fly, and even sometimes going into cliches like the whore with a heart of gold and such other things, it makes me wish that Dickens had more of the depth and wit that he gave to his male characters to his female characters, but they never feel distracting. There is also the controversy with his character Fagin and if he's an anti-semitic stereotype, but I've never thought so. Fagin, much like Sykes, is a character to be pitied, as they are both men who've felt forced to commit horrible deeds in order to keep themselves alive, though unlike Sykes, he is not a man to be feared, and you feel an amount of pity once he goes through the fate that he does.
Dickens is the rare author who writes a political satire that's actually funny, an entertainer who's not afraid to be enjoyable as well as being intelligent, and a optimistic writer who isn't afraid to have hope, while never stooping into escapism or overt sentimentality.