Oliver Twist Hardcover - 2008

Name: Oliver Twist (Nonesuch Dickens)
Price: 23.48 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Dickens, Charles
ISBN: 9781590201329

by Charles Dickens

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About this book

Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of English writer Charles Dickens's better-known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist.

Oliver Twist (Parish Boy's Progress) focuses on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by an elderly criminal Fagin. The book shows an unromantic portrayal of criminals and the treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.

From the publisher

This darkly satiric indictment of the social ills of Victorian London tells the story of a young orphan who becomes involved with a gang of criminals.

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

- A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information

- A chronology of the author's life and work

- A timeline of significant events that provides the books historical context

- An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations

- Detailed explanatory notes

- Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

- Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

- A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the readers experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the worlds finest books to their full potential.

First Edition Identification

Oliver Twist was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book in 1838 before the serialization ended.

The first edition was published by Richard Bentley in London, 1838. Octavo, three volumes, original reddish-brown cloth, gilt titles to the spine, front and rear panels marked with a stamp. Features 24 illustrated plates by George Cruikshank.

The first issue has the "Fireside" plate in volume 3 and "Boz" listed as the author on all title pages. It was issued on November 9, 1838. At Dicken's insistence, the Fireside plate was replaced with the "Church" plate, and Dickens's name replaced "Boz". The book was then reissued in three volumes 7 days after the first issue, on November 16.

The First US Edition of Oliver Twist was published in New York by Jemima M. Lewer in 1838, as two volumes, bound in modern brown quarter-leather bindings, with marbled paper boards.

Details

Title Oliver Twist
Author Charles Dickens
Binding Hardcover
Edition Facsimile
Pages 418
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY
Date 2008-11-26
Illustrated Yes
ISBN 9781590201329 / 1590201329
Weight 2.3 lbs (1.04 kg)
Dimensions 10.28 x 6.84 x 1.45 in (26.11 x 17.37 x 3.68 cm)
Reading level 530
Library of Congress subjects Bildungsromans, Kidnapping victims
Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation, but also the horror of the infamous debtors prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and slave factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney s clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work."