Oliver Twist
| Oliver Twist | |
|---|---|
 Frontispiece, first edition 1838 Design by George Cruikshank |
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| Author(s) | Charles Dickens |
| Original title | Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress |
| Illustrator | George Cruikshank |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Series | Monthly: February 1837 – April 1839 |
| Genre(s) | Historical-Fiction Social criticism |
| Publisher | Serial: Bentley's Miscellany Book: Richard Bentley |
| Publication date | 1837 (in three volumes) |
| Media type | Print (Serial, Hardcover and Paperback) |
| ISBN | 9119372019 |
| OCLC Number | 185812519 |
| Preceded by | The Pickwick Papers |
| Followed by | Nicholas Nickleby |
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities.
Oliver Twist is notable for Dickens' unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives.[1] The book exposed the cruel treatment of many a waif-child in London, which increased international concern in what is sometimes known as "The Great London Waif Crisis": the large number of orphans in London in the Dickens era. The book's subtitle, The Parish Boy's Progress, alludes to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and also to a pair of popular 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, "A Rake's Progress" and "A Harlot's Progress".[2]
An early example of the social novel, the book calls the public's attention to various contemporary evils, including the Poor Law, child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Dickens mocks the hypocrisies of his time by surrounding the novel's serious themes with sarcasm and dark humour. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of hardships as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's own early youth as a child labourer contributed to the story's development.
Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and is the basis for a highly successful musical play, and the multiple Academy Award winning 1968 motion picture made from it.
[edit] Publications
Design by George Cruikshank
The book was originally published in Bentley's Miscellany as a serial, in monthly instalments that began appearing in the month of February 1837 and continued through April 1839. It was originally intended to form part of Dickens's serial The Mudfog Papers.[3][4][5] It did not appear as its own monthly serial until 1846. George Cruikshank provided one steel etching per month to illustrate each instalment.[6] The first novelization appeared six months before the serialization was completed. It was published in three volumes by Richard Bentley, the owner of Bentley's Miscellany, under the author's pseudonym, "Boz" and included 24 steel-engraved plates by Cruikshank.
The first edition was titled: Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress.
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Workhouse and first jobs
Oliver Twist is born into a life of poverty and misfortune in a workhouse in an unnamed town
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