|
A novel set in London and in rural England in the 1830s; written and published in 1837-38.
by Charles Dickens
Synopsis
A young orphan, Oliver Twist, escapes a harsh apprenticeship in a rural town and travels to London, where he becomes involved with a gang of thieves. Fortunately for Oliver, he is befriended by a wealthy family whose members protect him from the robbers, investigate his mysterious past, and discover his parentage.
The Novel in Focus
Events in History at the Time of the Novel
At age twelve, Charles Dickens worked in a shoe blacking factory apart from his family for reasons beyond his or their control. In the process, he met a working-class boy, an orphan named Bob Fagin, whose name Dickens would use for the villain in Oliver Twist. As a boy, Dickens dreamed of growing up to be an educated and distinguished man, but his dreams were troubled by fears that he might become permanently stationed among the poor, where he might be reduced to a life as a desperate robber or vagabond. These fears are reflected in the novel, for such a fate almost befalls young Oliver Twist.
For More Information
Babington, Anthony. A House in Bow Street: Crime and the Magistracy, London, 1740-1881. London: MacDonald, 1969.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Bantam, 1982.
Driver, Felix. Power and Pauperism: The Workhouse System, 1834-1884. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
MacKenzie, Norman, and Jeanne MacKenzie. Dickens: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Pollins, Harold. Economic History of the Jews in England. London: Associated University Presses, 1982.
Slater, Michael. Dickens and Women. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1983.
Literature and Its Times © 1997 Joyce Moss and George Wilson © 2007 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
