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Wednesday 8 June 2011

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Charles John Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in 1838 Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and he died quickly in 1870 at Gad’s Hill Place in Higham. He was a British author who wrote a large number of famous and classic productions.
   Dickens was considered to be one of the largest authors writing in English and already during his life his author work met large popularity all over the world.

Oliver Twist is an orphan and was born in a poorhouse where he becomes badly treated. One evening Oliver asked for more food and he was locked up in a closet. The personnel at the poorhouse decided to sell Oliver to Mr. Sowerberry who is a funeral director. Oliver gets treated badly by Mrs. Sowerberry and the private school pupil Noah. One day Oliver and Noah end up in a fight and Oliver gets locked away and began to make a plan to run away. After a time Oliver runs away and walks to London where he ends up in bad company with Mr. Fagin, who teaches poor homeless boys to be pickpockets. A housebreaking goes wrong and Oliver ends up in a ditch, alone and hurt. Good Mr. Brownlow helps Oliver and in the end all pieces fall into place and he gets to know his parentage.

The story took place in the 1800:s in England. The surroundings are described as poor, filthy, gloomy and unsafe in a realistic way Charles Dickens illustrated the big social problems with satire in the social relations in the book, and in that way society was forced to acknowledge the problem which the law created for exposed groups, for example orphan children and poor people.
   The leading character is Oliver himself, he was a little orphan boy who despite his miserable childhood had a very high morale and followed his inner voice. He is a good boy who grew stronger with time and developed courageousness the older he got.
   The minor characters were Mr. Fagin, Mr. Sowerberry, Monks (Oliver’s half-brother), Jack Dawkins, Miss Rose (she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Maylie, she was also Oliver’s aunt and guardian angel) and Mr. Brownlow.
   The persons are very well described in the book and you get to know what they look like and how they are as persons, as you also can tell in the dialog in the book.

Charles Dickens described the story in the book in a realistic, chronological parallel story. He writes in an everyday language which is easy to understand. He is also very good at giving the readers a clear picture of the persons and the episodes with his descriptive language.
   Charles Dickens’s message is to describe and illustrate the hard, tough and sometimes frightening life for orphan children in England and on the streets of London. He also wanted to criticize the times poor reliefs and show the lack of it to make changes in the law.

I believe this book absolutely is a classic that everyone should read, and not just because it’s a classic but it’s also a touching, thrilling and well done book where you as a reader feels like you are with Oliver in the filthy streets in England.

Written by Jessica

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