Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Oliver Twist
    Unavailable
    Oliver Twist
    Unavailable
    Oliver Twist
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Oliver Twist

    By Charles Dickens and Neil Bartlett

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    ‘It is a solemn thing to hear, in a darkened room, the voice of a child…’

    Using Charles Dickens’ original words, a handful of tunes stolen from the vivid world of Victorian music-hall, and a chameleon ensemble of thirteen actors, Neil Bartlett’s powerful version of Oliver Twist brings the dark underbelly of nineteenth-century London back to bold theatrical life. The unforgettable characters – Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sikes, and the Artful Dodger – inhabit a world filled with images of danger and fear, innocence and hope; a world seen through the eyes of an astonished child. This version was first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2004.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOBERON BOOKS Ltd
    Release dateJun 26, 2012
    ISBN9781849435963
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is the most popular and, many believe, the greatest English author. He wrote many classic novels, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities are available from Brilliance Audio.

    Read more from Charles Dickens

    Related to Oliver Twist

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Double Trouble In Chaotic Comedy

      Nov 25, 2021

      THE ARRIVAL OF THE Christmas season is a reminder that while the West End is the beating heart of British theatre, it is in what used to be called the “provinces” — now more delicately in arts-speak the “regions” — that most of the country experience

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Storming Start

      Jul 20, 2022

      A Storming Start
      4 min read

    • Article

      For The Love Of Panto

      Dec 17, 2021

      For The Love Of Panto
      7 min read

    • Article

      What To Watch On Disney+: A Critic's Guide

      Nov 11, 2019

      Once upon a time, there was a magic kingdom called Disney - more of a magic empire, really - which, having annexed ABC television, the Muppets, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox, set its sights on streaming media. Welcome to Disney+, a wo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Hamlet, Frozen And Cinderella: A Guide To The Grand Return Of Theatre

      Apr 26, 2021

      In August 2005, the West End was treated to one of those regrettably never-to-be-forgotten events. In the Duchess Theatre, off the Strand, there was the world premiere of a show that – deep down – longed to be put out of its misery, and very soon wou

      7 min read

    • Article

      Eyes In The Darkness

      Mar 3, 2020

      Eyes In The Darkness
      5 min read

    • Article

      We’ll Meet Again

      Jan 20, 2021

      We’ll Meet Again
      4 min read

    • Article

      Love And Dedication Can Conquer All

      Mar 18, 2020

      CRITICS are often snooty about amateur theatre. Kenneth Tynan described it as ‘an exhibitionist alternative to bridge’ and James Agate, in his heyday at The Sunday Times, used to say that the difference between amateur and professional actors was tha

      4 min read

    • Article

      DVDBLUBAY & TV

      Dec 10, 2020

      DVDBLUBAY & TV
      3 min read

    • Article

      It’s A Brave New World

      Apr 15, 2020

      It’s A Brave New World
      4 min read

    • Article

      Films

      Jan 16, 2020

      Films
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks

      Nov 25, 2019

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks
      6 min read

    • Article

      Spring To Life

      Mar 30, 2023

      ● EVEN BY THE OLYMPIAN standards of the Covent Garden stalls, it was a top effort: the old dude beside me was snoring happily within five minutes of curtain-up on Rusalka. Actually at 200 quid a pop it’s not such a bad deal: for a start, you miss the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Arts

      Apr 3, 2024

      Arts
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘Adrenaline-fuelled’: Punchdrunk Return With The Horrifically Timely Siege Of Troy

      Mar 21, 2022

      Punchdrunk, the company that has for 20 years enthralled theatregoers by exploding traditional dramatic form and setting performers and audiences loose into the same vast, detailed, labyrinthine spaces, is taking on what might be the biggest, most fu

      5 min read

    • Article

      A House On Fire

      Apr 1, 2022

      A House On Fire
      5 min read

    • Article

      Theater of Shadows

      Feb 27, 2020

      Theater of Shadows
      17 min read

    • Article

      The 20 Of 2020

      Dec 11, 2020

      The 20 Of 2020
      9 min read

    • Article

      Hubris & Humiliation Review – This Queer Take On Jane Austen Is Startlingly Good

      Jan 26, 2023

      Sydney World Pride season has begun: across the city, theatre and performance companies are producing works by, for and about the global queer community – often with a local twist. If we’re lucky, Hubris & Humiliation, a new play by Lewis Treston mak

      3 min read

    • Article

      Anne McElvoy on Theatre

      Sep 30, 2021

      THE RETURN OF THEATRE has been a choppy business — venues are still chary of committing to large-scale productions with large casts outside the doughty return of till-rattlers like Anything Goes at the Barbican. Stage-starved audiences hanker for som

      3 min read

    Reviews for Oliver Twist

    4/5

    3,755 ratings96 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Great classic.
    • 5/5
      Writing: 5.0; Theme: 5.0; Content: 4.5; Language: 4.5; Overall: 5.0; This was a wonderful volume that shares the rough, yet heart-warming story of Oliver Twist. Oliver travels through life battling the evils of this world while growing up in the poor conditions of a street youth. This story resembles the process that many Christians go through. As Christians, like Oliver, we are persecuted in this life, but in the end those who were the persecuted will one day receive glorious rewards if they live their lives pleasing to Christ. Great tome! Highly recommend. ***March 5, 2019*** (read with Jonathan)
    • 3/5
      Written in 1837, during Dickens' astronomical rise to success, Oliver Twist is his third major work, second novel, and the negative counterpart to its exact contemporary, The Pickwick Papers. One could argue it's still the work that has had the greatest impact on the public psyche: Dodger, Fagin, Nancy, and Bill loom large in the collective cultural consciousness, don't they? Who can forget Oliver asking for more, or the climactic tightrope walk? In truth, this is not a brilliant work. Only Fagin has any sparks of internal life, and he's an unfortunate anti-Semitic caricature common to the era. Oliver Twist, carrying the torch from some of Dickens' sentimental Sketches is a rather lifeless little twig. What works in the story is the vividness of "low" culture, and Dickens' already fierce moral stance on the inhumanity of much of 19th century English culture. Certainly a worthwhile read, but possibly the least of Dickens' "Big Fifteen". The relatively straightforward Twist will give way to the diffuse, picaresque Nicholas Nickleby, and then the real Dickens will be formed.
    • 1/5
      seemed really predictable, hackneyed, lacking dimension. Oddly, the movie is so much better.
    • 4/5
      It had been many years since I read Charles Dickens, but this is pretty much exactly what I remember of him. This was a classic story where the good guys end up being good, and the bad guys end up being bad. The writing style and the atmosphere are where Dickens makes his money, and I loved being transported back to 19th century London. The story itself was not really a page-turner for me, but I did enjoy the characters enough to have no trouble getting through the novel. I will certainly be reading more of Dickens.
    • 5/5
      Still one of my favorite books. I loved rereading it. I read it the first time in Jr. High. The power of the words is even greater today.
    • 3/5
      This took a while to read. It's the first Dickens I have read all the way to the end! I enjoyed it, although my enjoyment was slightly spoiled by the fact that I already knew the story (or I thought I did) and that I kept comparing the book to the famous film, which is quite different! My next Dickens will be a story unknown to me...
    • 5/5
      The preface to my edition was helpful in many respects, pointing out that Oliver is intentionally a passive hero, intended to represent goodness surviving however surrounded by evil. That threatens to make Oliver rather a boring character, but for me he generated a lot of pathos. As Dickens writes at one point, "what could one poor child do?" The characters of most interest of course are the novel's infamous villains, the Artful Dodger and Fagin especially, who make distinct impressions with their descriptions, dialogue and actions.The constant identification of Fagin as a Jew I was forewarned about and it did make me uncomfortable, although I read sufficiently into the background of this novel that I was able to make a peace with Dickens' use of it. I also abided the infamous truckload of coincidences directing the plot. What I didn't expect - and appreciated - was the narrative tone, filled with (arch? caustic? sarcastic?) commentary on the goings-on. This novel has humour to rival that of The Pickwick Papers, but it's decidedly darker in tone and aimed at social commentary. I'm amused by the foreshadowing of personality through character naming - although, "Mr. Fang" sounds like a Chinese villain from a James Bond thriller, not a white police magistrate in 19th century London.Where I disagree with the preface analysis is its statement that Oliver's tidy ending bespeaks a lack of imagination about how to end his story more realistically, as though Dickens shied away from addressing the truth about the lives of kids on the streets. I think we only need to look at Nancy, the Dodger, Oliver's friends he left behind, and a host of other characters to see where this life typically led. If Oliver is spared, it's to spare the readers (and not to lose their following; there will be opportunities to explore tragedy later, once he has them firmly in hand.) Dickens did perform a great service by introducing realistic lower classes to literature instead of romanticizing or avoiding them.Dickens is difficult to get into at first and always a slow read for me, but never because he is boring; only because what he writes is so rich that I don't want to overlook a word of detail. Pickwick was hilarious and Oliver Twist has pulled my heartstrings, Nicholas Nickleby I read some years ago and liked its theatricality. Happily there's still many more novels to read.
    • 4/5
      free audiobook from audiobooksync.com - Little orphan Oliver Twist gets shuffled around from workhouse to abusive apprenticeship to bad people to good people back to bad people then to different good people, etc. etc.While definitely not the best of Dickens' work, Oliver Twist gets much more enjoyable once the reader comes to terms with the fact that Oliver himself is the second stupidest, most uninteresting character ever written (after Bella Swan. Actually, Oliver and Bella have a lot in common. Quick, someone write an essay about that!). All of the other now-iconic characters are interesting and well-developed and spend the entire plot doing an elaborate dance of unlikely coincidences around their weepy, bland core. (The Oliver/Bella essay is practically writing itself!). Thankfully Oliver himself barely shows up at all in the second half of the book. Definitely recommended if you like socially-conscious stories of the early 1800s, particularly the audiobook as Simon Vance is excellent.
    • 5/5
      "There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't."

      The same applies to Charles Dickens. I like him!
    • 5/5
      Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens was published 175 years ago in 1838 and there's no doubt it's an enduring classic. Most people know Oliver Twist is an orphan and of course his well-known request for "more".I don't know why it's taken so long for me to read Oliver Twist, perhaps because I didn't really enjoy Great Expectations. Having said that, I fell in love with Oliver Twist and am now a true Dickens fan.Rather than share some of the plot (which most people know one way or another), allow me to share some of my favourite quotes/excerpts.On considering sending young Oliver to sea on page 20: "the probability being, that the skipper would flog him to death, in a playful mood, someday after dinner, or would knock his brains out with an iron bar, both pastimes being, as is pretty generally known, very favourite and common recreations among gentlemen of that class."Page 52, regarding Oliver's drowsy state: "There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that is passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapped in perfect unconsciousness. At such times, a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its might powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate."Page 176, this had me laughing for ages: "Unembellished by any violence of gesticulation, this might have seemed no very high compliment to the lady's charms; but, as Mr Bumble accompanied the threat with many warlike gestures, she was much touched with this proof of his devotion, and protested, with great admiration, that he was indeed a dove."I could go on, but I hope that's enough to influence you to give Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens a try if you haven't before. The language was such a delight, I couldn't do it justice by reading it at my normal pace, and really had to slow right down to savour his words and his writing.I savoured being amongst the pages and recommend Oliver Twist to all who appreciate the English language.
    • 4/5
      Having developed an aversion to Dickens having been forced to read Great Expectations at school, I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book is. Some of Dickens' characters are hilarious and he describes their idiosyncrasies beautifully!
    • 4/5
      A while back, I decided that I really ought to read some more Dickens. So last year I picked up Great Expectations, which had a good enough story, but which kept reminding me far too much of a friend's comment that he never liked Dickens because it was too obvious they were paying him by the word. But while Oliver Twist might also be legitimately accused of wordiness, in this case that struck me as more charming than tedious, and overall I found it a much more engaging read.The plot has enough interesting elements, certainly. There's crime and punishment, kindness and cruelty, long-held secrets, and sudden reversals of fortune. Also huge honking coincidences, but at least Dickens introduces them gradually enough to give you time to shore up your suspension of disbelief. Oliver himself, though, really isn't much of a character. He's someone to whom things happen, not one who makes things happen, and his only defining traits are innocence, piteousness, and a vague, generic sort of sweetness. But this isn't necessarily a problem; he seems to me to be filling the role of a slightly sentimentalized everychild, and on that level he works well enough.But what really makes this worth reading isn't the characters or the plot. It's the surprising little moments of human insight, the wonderfully sly and dark satiric humor, and the sharply pointed social commentary. And, unfortunately, while there may be no more workhouses in England, the attitudes towards the poor that Dickens targets here are still too familiar and relevant even now. It's brilliant writing, and if it occasionally brings a little bit of mawkishness or melodrama along with it, I find that entirely forgivable.Somewhat less forgivable, though, is the portrayal of Fagin as an unpleasantly stereotypical villainous Jew. Interestingly enough, despite everything about this book that I already knew through cultural osmosis, I had never even realized that he was Jewish. Dickens, however, never lets you forget it for an instant. Every other sentence, he's referred to as "the Jew." My impression is that, for whatever it's worth, at least this is more thoughtless stereotyping than active maliciousness. A brief bit of research on the internet reveals that Dickens, having had the offensiveness of this pointed out to him, later revised the last fifteen chapters or so to tone it down. Which is something, I guess, but I don't know that it helps all that much. And it really is very unfortunate, both for the obvious reasons and because without the uncomfortable overtones of anti-Semitism, Fagin really could have been quite an entertainingly smarmy character. And he actually does get some surprisingly poignant moments at the end.
    • 4/5
      Difficult to review a book that's already imprinted itself on the general consciousness, either via the musical or via word of mouth, or just knowing.....What struck me about this book, as opposed to the image I had in my mind before reading it, was the extent of the violence perpetrated partway through. The recent BBC TV show aimed at selecting a 'Nancy' to appear in the West End musical seemed a long long way removed from the reality of the book.Otherwise, some fine Dickensian characterisation, a little humour thrown in occasionally, and some predictable incidences of mistaken identity and staggering coincidence.Glad I read it, if only to appreciate the true version.
    • 4/5
      Assigning students Dickens will either infuriate or enchant them, so I believe it is vital to choose the right work for your classroom.With concerns to Secondary Education, Oliver Twist is more accessible than works such as Hard Times, and arguably more superficially enjoyable than novels like Great Expectations. It is a familiar story, although perhaps not as familiar as A Christmas Carol, so students will feel more comfortable from the outset than if they were attempting, say, David Copperfield.This classic story about orphans serves as an ideal introduction to 19th century literature, and also to Dickens - someone they will undoubtedly come acrosNote: Again, teachers should be aware that Dickens is fond of the occasional bout of violence.
    • 5/5
      Nobody can write about abused orphans like Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist, a baby born in a workhouse to a mysterious woman is raised in the system. His kind and loving nature make him a vulnerable target for a group of children thieves led by the character Dickens calls "The Jew," Fagin. They have their own little family of lost boys who serve Fagin, who in turn is somewhat subservient to a very evil man, Bill Sykes. Oliver ends up in kind hands for a short time, and then once again falls prey to the villainous men who want to use him up. I'm a great fan of the musical Oliver!, and that musical stayed pretty on track with the story and the nature of the characters, although there are great chunks of plot left out of the musical as well as some key players, but the musical story wasn't diminished in my eyes. I still love it and I found Oliver Twist to be fascinating. The 19th century time period and Dickens's use of language really made this a great read.
    • 3/5
      Much better than all the other Dickens I have read so far (David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities), partly because I remember having seen the most part of the film which was released some time ago, and the vague recollection I had of the scenes probably helped me to nourrish my imagination. Oliver Twist comes first, then, utterly Dickensian in its dark atmosphere. To someone whishing to read their first Dickens, no doubt this would be my recommendation.
    • 5/5
      In 9th grade I read "Great Expectations." From that experience, I decided I had no interest in Charles Dickens and, despite my love of reading, never gave any of his books a chance. What a mistake! I LOVE Oliver Twist and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I can't wait to read more of his works, and learn more about Dickens.
    • 4/5
      I read a review on Amazon where the reviewer really enjoyed this book until the last third, when she said it got bored. I feel exactly the opposite, trudging through it resentfully, until I reached the last third. At this point it suddenly morphed into one of the best books I've ever read and I couldn't put it down.Everybody knows the basic story of Oliver Twist - workhouse boy falls in with a gang of street thieves in London. However, this only takes up the first third, if that, and it occurred to me that I had no idea what happened /after/ that. It turns out to be a very interesting story.It's been said before, and probably will be again, but Charles Dickens uses three pages where two sentences will suffice and this irritated me a little. At one point he took up a page and a half to say how he wasn't going to say much on that particular topic. It can make the novel hard going sometimes.I do love his dry, sarcastic humour though, particularly during the workhouse scenes near the beginning. Throughout these scenes, you are made very aware that this is a book with A Point. It's primary objective was not to entertain, but to showcase the terrible conditions of the workcases to the Victorian public. After these scenes, the tone of the book changes and it becomes much less biting.It's definitely worth reading, but the last third is far better than the rest.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite Dickens novel, but still worth reading.
    • 4/5
      Well, I finally finished re-reading Oliver Twist. Also known as, how much bad stuff can happen to one poor orphan boy? It took me a while to finish reading, not because of the story itself, but simply because of other time issues. I enjoyed the story and the ideas. I love Dickens' writing style, I just wish I'd been able to read more of it at a time during one sitting. Now that I've re-read this one, I'd like to re-read more of his work.
    • 4/5
      I first read this after seeing the 1960's film musical. Loved it then. When I reread it as an adult, I was a little less more impartial. But I still enjoyed the imagery, the characters and the commentary on society.
    • 5/5
      Outside of a failed attempt at the Pickwick Papers a decade or so ago, I believe this is the first Dickens I have read as an adult. Is that possible? I should be sent to the workhouse myself for that.
    • 5/5
      A classic.
      A tragedy.
      A horror.
      A love story.
      A fairytale.
      'Oliver Twist' is the bleakest and brightest of tales. Charles Dickens weaves all of the elements for a gripping story into his book. What I love most, however, is Mr. Dickens' ability to paint a world, a character, a situation, a single sentiment with nothing but words. It was a treat and an education reading this book. The characters are vivid. They are awful and delightful. Throughout the reading are included words of wisdom--quotes which I paused to highlight. I will reread them time and again. I highly recommend this book to all story lovers. It is a masterpiece.
    • 3/5
      There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed. In the latter chapters, the action picked up and Dickens did a great job of keeping the intensity up and leading the reader along, something I imagine would be especially important for a book published in episodes.

      I also liked how innocent Oliver was, always trying to do the right thing despite the circumstances. He seemed a little too good to be true, but I liked him so much, I didn't mind that he was a bit unbelievable. He just had so much spirit.

      One thing I don't quite understand in a lot of these 19th-century books is how easily people fall ill. Emotional strain or just a walk in the cold can put them into fits or lay them low with a life-threatening fever. Were people back then really that delicate, or were the pathogens present in 19th-century London just so dangerous and ready to pounce that people were always a head cold away from death? What were these mysterious fevers people were always getting?

      The most unpleasant part about the book is Dickens's insistence on referring to Fagin primarily as "The Jew". According to the notes at the end of my version, Dickens responded to critics who claimed his portrayal of Fagin was anti-Semitic by saying that at the time the story took place, most of those in Fagin's line of work were Jews. I don't know if this is true or not, but the way that he calls him "The Jew" at least as often as he calls him by name suggests that he's actually saying he's in that line of work because he's Jewish, which is a very different thing than just saying he's in that line of work and happens to be Jewish.

      In addition, there's a scene in which Oliver sees Fagin and shouts, "The Jew! The Jew!" It seemed strange to me that Oliver would have referred to him like that because I thought other characters generally referred to Fagin by name, and Oliver would have done the same.

      And then there's the way that Dickens time and again describes Fagin in ways that suggest he's less than human, like in chapter 47 when Dickens says that Fagin "disclosed among his toothless gums a few such fangs as should have been a dog's or rat's." I don't recall Dickens comparing other non-Jewish characters to animals in this way.

      I also considered the possibility that Dickens was just writing about Fagin as the culture at the time would have seen him, but I could buy this notion a lot better if these nasty things were said only by other characters in the story, but by and large, it's not other characters who are saying these things; it's our narrator (whom I read as Dickens). All of this suggests to me that Dickens's portrayal of Fagin wasn't merely a reflection of the demographics of a particular type of criminal in London at that time but truly was (and is) anti-Semitic.

      But aside from this admittedly very large part of the book, I enjoyed the story. I nearly always enjoy Dickens's dark storytelling and psychologically tormented characters, and I find the female characters in his book refreshingly strong-willed (refreshing because not every strong-willed woman is punished for it (though most of them are)).
    • 4/5
      My third Dickens novel, and although I initally struggled a bit I ended up enjoying it very much. Dickens has such a way with words and you feel like you are living in his era when you read his books. So far, they have all made me want to wallow in history (in a good way!).
    • 4/5
      "Please, sir, may I have some more (porridge)?"
    • 4/5
      This book is about a hard-working orphan in New England named Oliver Twist. In the story, he travels from workhouse to workhouse, and finally he escapes to London. Later, he kidnapped by a group of bad guys who try to steal handkerchiefs from rich people. One day, Oliver goes with the bad guys, and finds out that they are trying to steal things. Then, Oliver ends up with a man who is very nice to him and takes care of him. But later on, they spilt up again and find each other and capture the bad guys.I like this book because it is about an orphan who takes a risk to explore the world beyond him to seek for a place to belong with.
    • 4/5
      There were certain points in the story where I found it hard to follow what was going on. I found the ending especially confusing. But other than that, I enjoyed the story. I plan on watching a couple movie renditions to see if I can better understand what was going on.
    • 3/5
      Language was awesome. The story was not connected enough and the point that the author intended to place, that morality in not class dependent was not fulfilled.