Oliver Twist (Collins Classics) Paperback – July 23, 2013

I have a liking of Charles Dickens books and I’ve watched many renditions of Oliver Twist movies over many years.I hesitated to rate this book at 5 stars because of the surprising racist stereotypes highlighted. I was truly astounded.Although I’m black and part of other marginalized identities, I’m not into the ‘cancel culture’If we really in earnest sought to unearth all stereotyped and prejudicial representations, would likely clean out most books, tv shows and movies would require canceling massive amounts of literature etc that enhance our lives.So, I had to think hard about my rating.The audiobook narration was great. I didn’t care for the mini introduction to each chapter. It was likely written in this way to help engage the reader as if you are having a personal interaction regarding the telling of this story.The Oliver Twist movies are wonderful but now that I read this book, I’m sorely disappointed at how much the movies have removed. Given these modern times, more of the story can be made into a small series of something. This story is intense, layered, complex and the movies only represents a very minute portion of the entire story.I hood that many will read and/or use the audio narration. Aside from the surprising prejudice/racist stereotypes, Is a enjoyable story, it’s much more mature than the movies. It’s probably best for mature teens onwards.Re the offensive pieces, I remind myself of the period the author is from and must consider that was acceptable to have and express personal racist opinions. Today, it’s just kept under wraps. Removing the direct words, problems, injustices in words doesn’t take away the actions still in place now.I wouldn’t want this book to be changed based on todays sensitivities bc the past can’t literally be removed.Anyways, I absolutely enjoyed this book and the narration. Some parts had me anxious, laughing or sad! Charles dickens was very talented writer. The social-political injustices of real life motivates his writing but being able to express unpopular opinions and write with dual purposes, is fantastic.

I've always loved the story of Oliver Twist-now I finally have an illustrated copy I'm even happier. This book is an unabridged copy and is searchable-a great feature. The cover has a picture of Oliver, all ragged with his little bundle. The table of contents takes you to Charles Dickens' preface, which is well worth reading, and to any chapter in the book. Alas, it does not take you to any of the illustrations, but they are beautifully rendered and very clear. I have the most basic Kindle and I have no trouble seeing all of the detail in the illustrations. The chapter headings list not only the number of the chapter, but the brief description Dickens wrote for each chapter, so that if you want to find a particular spot-say, when Oliver runs away to London, you can see that Chapter VIII has the summary "Oliver walks to London. He encounters on the road a strange sort of young gentleman." This makes it very easy to go to any part of the book you want to read.Warning: SPOILERS!!!!The story is one of a poor orphan boy, sold to an undertaker and abused until he runs away to London. He falls in with thieves and through a strange twist of fate is rescued by the man who was his father's best friend. It's a long story, filled with reversals of fortune and amazing coincidences, and although it has a happy ending, there is some genuine tragedy. It's a very sad scene when Oliver returns to the orphanage to get his best friend, Dick, who saw him off on his journey to London, only to find that Dick has died of untreated sickness. The prostitute, Nancy, has all the attributes of a character in a Greek tragedy-you desperately want her to leave the streets and her brutal boyfriend, Bill Sikes, and when she refuses to go, you have a sinking feeling that she isn't going to last much longer. When he beats her to death in their little room, it's a gruesome scene, but not a surprising one. The only relief from Fagin's gang comes from Charley, who reforms and leaves London to become a grazier.A word about Fagin-some might find the constant description of him as "the Jew" offensive. It is not meant as a pejorative, but rather as a handy label to define the arch-criminal. While it is true that Fagin is constantly described as a Jew and is one of the most repulsive Jewish characters in literature, it was not Dickens' intent to cast slurs upon Jewish people. He wrote in good faith and was troubled later, after becoming friends with Eliza Davis, the wife of the Jewish banker he sold his London house to, by the way he had portrayed Fagin. Eliza wrote to him in 1863 that she considered the way Dickens had portrayed Fagin a great wrong to the Jewish people. Dickens started to revise Oliver Twist, removing over 180 instances of the word "Jew" from the first edition text. He also ommitted sterotypical caricature from his public readings of Oliver Twist and a contemporary report noted, "There is no nasal intonation; a bent back but no shoulder-shrug: the conventional attributes are omitted." Dickens was finally able to write to Eliza, "There is nothing but good will left between me and a People for whom I have a real regard and to whom I would not willfully have given an offence." Fagin might still give offense to those looking for it, but personally I have always seen him as an example of a bad man, not a Jewish man, and I believe that is how Dickens meant to portray him.

Great story of course - being one of Charles Dickens' most famous characters (especially due to Lionel Bart's musical versions, on stage and film). If you're familiar with the film, you may notice the understandable artistic licence Lionel Bart took in simplifying the story. But I take that to be part of the fun of reading the original. Dickens was highly observant of Britain's class structure and the ease at which one could fall - something he knew from personal experience and put to great effect in this book. The fall from grace of Mr Bumble is tragic-comic (and quite cruel, proving the point).The book is very much of its time, and although Dickens was acutely aware of poverty and class, he seemed to have a racial blind spot - still controversial to this day.

The classic story of Oliver Twist. Terribly, even though I'm an English teacher I had never read this, but am a fan of the films. Well, the book is nothing like the film at all. There is so much more to this story that I had no idea about! It is surprisingly long but definitely worth a read to find out the full story! The film only deals with about 25% of the book!

Such a wonderful story, but sadly this particular edition has been poorly formatted. Many words are joined together and some of the punctuation is off. This feels like a badly scanned version that was not properly proofed after.

I am a huge fan of Dickens so am slightly biased in anything I say about his work, but Oliver Twist is a real legend of a book! Dickens is well known for his ability to create the most amazing characters and this book certainly has them in spades. If you have only seen the very popular musical then you will discover that there is a lot more to the story. It is also much darker and paints a very gritty and graphic picture of what life was like for the poor and destitute at that time in London. As per usual Dickens, it's a tale of rags to riches, of good triumphing over evil and of everyone getting what they deserve!This is one of Dickens shorter novels, so if you are considering reading him for the fisrt time then this would be a great place to start...but beware, you will probably find yourself saying "I want some more" ;-)

Loved reading the book again. Anyone who has not read but has enjoyed the Lionel Bart film and musical, should read the novel. Atmospheric, with descriptions of Victorian London. A joy to read in the festive season, or anytime.