Summary
Dickens's second novel was a far cry from THE PICKWICK PAPERS, his first. The story of an orphan who flees the workhouse only to fall in with a gang of thieves and prostitutes in London's sleazy underworld, it was a trenchant criticism of England's poor laws. Enacted in the 1830s, these laws provided assistance for the poor only through workhouses, which were deliberately squalid and miserable to encourage the poor-who were considered lazy and immoral-to better themselves and get out. The inequities between rich and poor were one of Dickens's constant themes, and with OLIVER TWIST he established himself as a staunch champion of the downtrodden, particularly children. The novel also, however, has its cheerful moments, and contains some of Dickens's most colorful characters, including Fagin, the Artful Dodger, the evil Bill Sykes, and the unfortunate Nancy.
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Media Reviews
"The character of Nancy is the finest thing he ever did. He never afterwards saw all sides of a woman's character-saw all around her." -- Wilkie Collins
"...in some curious way Fagin's court for all its squalor and meanness has a sort of ghastly gaiety and life that makes Mr. Brownlow's hot punch by the fire and Rose Maylie's country flower picking expeditions seem like the feeble stirrings of the moribund. With this ambiguity we are brought face to face with the puzzle of the force and power that still exert their influence upon most readers of this strange, great, yet often cheaply sentimental novel....Perhaps the final judgement on 'Oliver Twist' must be that it is the crude apprentice work of a very great genius, and, as such, a unique curiosity of literature." -- Angus Wilson
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Heinemann/Raintree
Published date: 1975
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