Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

 

Oliver Twist

by Charles Dickens

This is the tale of an orphan named Oliver Twist who ends up finding his way to his original family, rising from the depths of the seedy underbelly of London to a life of love and means.

Oliver is born in a workhouse and his mother dies. Mistreated, in typical Dickens style, Oliver runs away and falls in with a band of thieves who plan to use his innocence for their own evil ends. But one of them, Fagin, knows who Oliver is and has been told to keep him in a position of poverty and loneliness.

Oliver Twist is full of delightfully awful characters, fully drawn in their wickedness. I often wonder when reading Dickens if people back then were really this terrible to one another. There is no compassion for poor little Oliver by anyone until he meets those who recognize a resemblance in his face to someone they loved who has passed. Oliver is repeatedly saved by them only to again be duped by Fagin and his crew, and dragged back into their realm.

When one of them, Sikes--possibly the most evil of them--commits a terrible act against a girl who has tried to help Oliver to be free, the band of thieves is found out and Oliver is reunited with his family. He learns who he truly is and that it was his older half brother all along who knew of his existence and orchestrated the plot to keep him hidden and bereft.

Here is Dickens again with the commentary on class divide and the wickedness of those who have all of the power. It is also a comment on the idea that we should not judge anyone, since they may not be who we think they are. I really enjoyed this story. The plot was mostly well paced (maybe a tad long), and all of the characters contributed to the plot in meaningful ways. There is almost always a large cast of characters in a Dickens novel, which is something I enjoy. Every one of them is distinct. One thing I would say is that the story sometimes felt cartoonish, but I was not put off by it much. I'm giving Oliver Twist 4 stars.