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Oliver Twist
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Oliver Twist Mass market paperbound - 2002

by Charles Dickens; Philip Horne (Editor)

Born to unknown parents, Oliver Twist is forced as a small child to labor in a workhouse under the inhuman conditions that were common in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. In desperation the boy runs away and is taken in by a disreputable bunch of thieves that includes the burglar, Bill Sikes; Bill's mistress, Nancy; "the Artful Dodger;" and the ringleader, Fagin. Oliver's experiences with this wicked gang, and the kind treatment he receives later from a woman named Rose, are at the heart of this story of the clash between childhood innocence and the dark criminal underworld.

This new edition is based on the serialized text of the novel, allowing readers to experience the story as its first readers did-not as a polished novel for a family audience, but as the dramatically improvised work of a young man discovering his possibilities as a writer. With the original 1841 introduction and 1850 preface, a full glossary of the language of criminals at the time, extensive endnotes, and a new introduction, this is the definitive edition of Charles Dickens's second novel.

About this book

Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of English writer Charles Dickens's better-known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist. 

Oliver Twist
(Parish Boy's Progress) focuses on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by an elderly criminal Fagin. The book shows an unromantic portrayal of criminals and the treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.

Summary

Thanks to its colorful cast of characters and gritty portrayal of street life in Victorian London, Dickens’ Oliver Twist has captured readers’ hearts for more than 150 years. Today’s children will love it too. Oliver, a poor orphan, escapes the miserable workhouse where he was born only to fall into the clutches of a band of pickpockets led by the odious Fagin. Yet no amount of cruelty can destroy his purity…and through his goodness, he finds salvation.

From the publisher

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors’ prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and “slave” factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years’ formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney’s clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work.


Philip Horne has spent a decade looking at the thousands of James's letters in archives in the United States and Europe. A Reader in English Literature at University College, London, he is the author of Henry James and Revision and the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of James's The Tragic Muse.

First Edition Identification

Oliver Twist was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book in 1838 before the serialization ended.

The first edition was published by Richard Bentley in London, 1838. Octavo, three volumes, original reddish-brown cloth, gilt titles to the spine, front and rear panels marked with a stamp. Features 24 illustrated plates by George Cruikshank. 

The first issue has the "Fireside" plate in volume 3 and "Boz" listed as the author on all title pages. It was issued on November 9, 1838. At Dicken's insistence, the Fireside plate was replaced with the "Church" plate, and Dickens's name replaced "Boz". The book was then reissued in three volumes 7 days after the first issue, on November 16.

The First US Edition of Oliver Twist was published in New York by Jemima M. Lewer in 1838, as two volumes, bound in modern brown quarter-leather bindings, with marbled paper boards.

Details

  • Title Oliver Twist
  • Author Charles Dickens; Philip Horne (Editor)
  • Binding Mass Market Paperbound
  • Pages 553
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group
  • Date 2002-08-27
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780140435221 / 0140435220
  • Weight 0.8 lbs (0.36 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.78 x 5.11 x 0.99 in (19.76 x 12.98 x 2.51 cm)
  • Reading level 530
  • Library of Congress subjects London (England), Bildungsromans
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2003265746
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

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Oliver Twist (Penguin Classics)

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