Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

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Description

Oliver Twist; or the Parish Boys Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel and was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book in 1838 before the serialization ended. The story centers on an orphan Oliver Twist, raised in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver Twist travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger', a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.

Oliver Twist contains an unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. The alternative title, The Parish Boy's Progress, alludes to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress as well as the 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, and A Harlot's Progress. 

In this early example of a social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labor, domestic violence, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child laborer in a cotton mill was widely read in 1830. Likely, Dickens's own experiences as a youth contributed to the novel.

This Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialization in Bentley's Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Phillip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves' slang, a chronology of Dickens's life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank's original illustration.

Adaptation

The novel has been the subject of many adaptations, including a highly successful musical play Oliver!, a West End theatre stage musical by Lionel Bart which was the winner of the 41st Academy Awards in the Best Picture category.

Film

• Oliver Twist (1909), a silent film, the first adaptation of Dickens' novel.
• British and American silent films (1912) adaptations. Later, a silent Hungarian film (1919) adaptation and many more adaptations as silent films.
• Oliver Twist (1933), the first sound production of Dicken's novel.
• Manik (1961), a Bengali film directed by Bijalibaran Sen which was based on this novel.
• Oliver Twist, animated film adaptations (1974) and Australian animated film (1982).
• Oliver & Company (1988), Disney full-length animated feature inspired by the story of Oliver Twist. 
• Twisted (1996), an independent based on Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist set in the gay underground sub-culture of New York City in the 1990s.
• Oliver Twist (2003), an independent film loosely based on Oliver Twist.

Television

• Oliver Twist, a 1982 TV movie directed by Clive Donner
• Oliver Twist, a 12 episodes 1985 BBC One drama directed by Gareth Davies
• Oliver Twist, 1999 ITV drama adaptation 
• Oliver Twist, a five-episode 2007 BBC One drama directed by Coky Giedroyc
• Saban's Adventure of Oliver Twist, a 52 episode animated American-French co-production that aired between 1996 and 1997. In this version, Oliver is a young dog.
• Escape of the Artful Dodger, an Australian TV series set as a sequel, where Dodger and Oliver are sent to the Colony Australia. 

Theatre

•  In 1838 Charles Zachary Barnett's adaptation, The three-act burletta Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy's Progress opened at the Marylebone Theatre in London 
•  Oliver! a West End theatre stage musical adaptation by Lionel Bart
• Oliver Twist is a 2017 stage adaptation of the novel written by Anya Reiss which premiered at the Regent's Park Theatre. The show was directed by Caroline Byrne.

About the Author

Charles John Huffam Dickens was (born on February 7, 1812, Landport Portsea, England) an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. He earned popularity during his lifetime because of his unprecedented work, and by the 20th century, he was recognized as a literary genius. His short stories and novels are still entertaining readers across the globe. 

Though he did not have formal schooling, yet he got to work as editor of the weekly journal for nearly 20 years and published over a dozen major novels, novellas, a large number of short stories, plays, non-fiction books, and Chrismas-themed stories. His novels were initially serialized in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats. His notable works include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations.

He was married to Catherine Thomson Hogarth and they had ten children. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870, at the age of fifty-eight.

     

Charles Dickens

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Rating: 4.5/5

Author: Charles Dickens

Publisher: Penguin Classics (Revised edition)

Publishing Date: April 29, 2003

Edition Language: English

Genre: Coming of Age Fiction (Book), Classic Literature & Fiction, Literary Fiction

ISBN-10: 0141439742

ISBN-13: 978-0141439747

Pages: 608 (Paperback)