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  • For me, this is where Dickens hits his all-time low point. I really hated this book. It displays very little of his characteristically superb irony and exquisite writing. The most that can be said for it is that it's easily accessible, but his shameful treatment of the Fagin character and the anti- ... Continue

    For me, this is where Dickens hits his all-time low point. I really hated this book. It displays very little of his characteristically superb irony and exquisite writing. The most that can be said for it is that it's easily accessible, but his shameful treatment of the Fagin character and the anti-semitism embodied therein is severely off-putting. (though Dickens atoned for this later by his fine speech given to the character of the Jewish gentleman in "Our Mutual Friend). Nevertheless, the character of Oliver himself is far from lovable - he's saccharine to point of cloying.

    Although OT is a standard of many middle-school English class curricula, it doesn't really display Dickens at his full power. (For a story about a sad-sack orphan you can actually like, try David Copperfield.)

    

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• ― guaddess said on May 30, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Dickens's classic morality tale of a starving orphan caught between opposing forces of good and evil is a powerful indictment of Victorian England's Poor Laws. Filled with dark humor and an unforgettable cast of characters Oliver Twist, Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sykes, and the Artful Dodger, to name a few Dickens's second novel is a compelling social satire that has remained popular since it was first serialized in 1837-39.

The text for this Modern Library Paperback Classic is taken from the 1846 New Edition, revised and corrected by the author. It includes new explanatory notes and an appendix, A Brief History of the English Poor Laws.

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