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Book Description
One of Dickens’s most popular novels, Oliver Twist is the story of a young orphan who dares to say, "Please, sir, I want some more." After escaping from the dark and dismal workhouse where he was born, Oliver finds himself on the mean streets of Victorian-era London and is unwittingly recruited into a scabrous gang of scheming urchins. In this band of petty thieves Oliver encounters the extraordinary and vibrant characters who have captured readers’ imaginations for more than 150 years: the loathsome Fagin, the beautiful and tragic Nancy, the crafty Artful Dodger, and perhaps one of the greatest villains of all time—the terrifying Bill Sikes.
Rife with Dickens’s disturbing descriptions of street life, the novel is buoyed by the purity of the orphan Oliver. Though he is treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, his pious innocence leads him at last to salvation—and the shocking discovery of his true identity.
Rife with Dickens’s disturbing descriptions of street life, the novel is buoyed by the purity of the orphan Oliver. Though he is treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, his pious innocence leads him at last to salvation—and the shocking discovery of his true identity.
Features illustrations by George Cruikshank.
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- Book Details
- English Books
- Rating:



(134)
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- Mass Market Paperback 560 Pages
- ISBN-10: 1593080301
- ISBN-13: 9781593080303
- Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
- Pub date: May 01, 2003
- Dimensions: 17 cm x 11 cm x 4 cm Just how big is that?
- Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Leather Bound, Library Binding, School & Library Binding, Unbound and Others
- In other languages:

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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.)