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.

    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"
    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"
    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"
    Ebook48 pages34 minutes

    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535829960
    A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Struggles That Made Charles Dickens

      May 12, 2022

      In 1824, at just 12 years old, Charles John Huffam Dickens had no choice but to leave school and get a job. Born on 7 February 1812, his idyllic childhood had come crashing down when his father, John, who had always been reckless with the money he ea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Exceeding Expectations

      Nov 23, 2023

      Charles Dickens did not come from a privileged background, but nor were his parents without prospects. John Dickens (1785-1851), was the son of servants to the Crewe family - Cheshire gentry with a townhouse in Mayfair - whose patronage secured him a

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Feb 8, 2023

      The Old Un's Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      UNFORGETTABLE DeWitt Wallace

      Feb 15, 2022

      UNFORGETTABLE DeWitt Wallace
      7 min read

    • Article

      Finding Facts In Fiction

      Mar 12, 2021

      Finding Facts In Fiction
      10 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 8, 2024

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jun 21, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Giving The Poor A Voice

      Nov 23, 2023

      Giving The Poor A Voice
      3 min read

    • Article

      Necrolog

      Jun 16, 2022

      John Nicholson was the only child of Captain W Ivan Nicholson and Eleanor (Nella) Zollner, daughter of the Danish Consul. In 1946, when John was six, the family moved to Flying Rat Cottage in Great Dunmow, Essex, where they kept poultry, plus a goat

      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Ford, Millet, and More

      May 12, 2020

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—Hello, Richard Ford and Lydia Millet!—publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Ford, Millet, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      They Were One-offs

      Apr 6, 2022

      HOW I wish I’d written this book! Matthew Kelly celebrates four women whose work created the organisations and attitudes to conservation we take for granted today. Two are well known, two are not; all their stories enrich us. The well-known two are O

      7 min read

    • Article

      End Of The Sloane Age

      Jan 12, 2022

      The idea of Sloane Rangers – the native population of the bestselling Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (Ebury Press, 1982) – started with what I call a Martian moment, a ‘Have you seen it?’ sensation. Back then sci-fi film writers – rather like David

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dr Lee Jackson On Why Charles Dickens Remains Relevant Today

      Nov 23, 2023

      MEET THE EXPERT DR LEE JACKSON is a writer and historian with an interest in the social history and geography of Victorian London. He is the author of numerous books, including Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London (Yale, 2023), and is

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Mar 9, 2021

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      FAMILY Fortunes

      Dec 8, 2023

      FAMILY Fortunes
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Sep 21, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Our Miss Michelangelo

      Mar 22, 2023

      Our Miss Michelangelo
      5 min read

    • Article

      Norman Mailer

      Aug 25, 2021

      In April 1965, Norman Mailer and his wife Beverly were in the UK to promote his book An American Dream and to visit friends Diana and Lionel Trilling in Oxford. His biographer relates that, in a letter to Diana Trilling, Mailer wrote that the novel w

      2 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading Room

      Sep 11, 2019

      THE Reading Room
      4 min read

    • Article

      Curiouser and CURIOUSER

      Mar 31, 2021

      With its cast of weird and wonderful characters, and bizarre goings-on, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a sensation when it was published in 1865. Up to that point, children’s books had often been lecturing and moralising. Alic

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" - Gale

      1

      Oliver Twist

      Charles Dickens

      1838

      Introduction

      Oliver Twist, published in 1838, is one of Charles Dickens's best-known and well-loved works. It was written after he had already attained success as the author of The Pickwick Papers. It has been adapted as a film and a long-running Broadway musical and has been considered a classic ever since it was first published. The book originally appeared as a serial; that is, each chapter was published separately, in order, in a magazine called Bentley's Miscellany, of which Dickens was editor. Each week, readers waited avidly for the next installment in the tale; this partly accounts for the fact that each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger that would hold the reader's interest until the following chapter was published.

      Dickens uses the characters and situations in the book to make a pointed social commentary, attacking the hypocrisy and flaws of institutions, including his society's government, its laws and criminal system, and its methods of dealing with poor people. Interestingly, he doesn't suggest any solutions; he merely points out the suffering inflicted by these systems and their deep injustice. Dickens basically believed that most people were good at heart but that their good impulses could be distorted by social ills.

      After publishing Oliver Twist, Dickens went on to write Nicholas Nickelby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, American Notes, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. After 1858 he often toured, reading out loud from his works to huge audiences; every new piece from his pen was eagerly awaited, and he was perhaps the most famous and best-loved author who has ever lived.

      Author Biography

      Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsea, England. His father, John Dickens, was a navy clerk. In 1814, John Dickens was transferred to London, and in 1817, the whole family moved to Chatham, near the naval docks. Dickens's life during the next five years was stable and happy; he was tutored by his mother and later went to school in Chatham. His father had a small collection of books, and Dickens read them avidly.

      In 1822, Dickens's father was transferred back to London, but he had gotten himself deeply in debt by then and was soon sent to a debtors' prison, or workhouse, along with his wife and Dickens's siblings. Dickens, who at twelve was considered old enough to work, had to work in a boot-blacking warehouse. Alone in a strange city, separated from his family, he endured harrowing experiences that marked him with a hatred for the social system and the desire to succeed so that he would never have to live this way again. After a few months, he was saved when his grandmother died and her small legacy allowed Dickens's father to get out of prison.

      When he was fifteen, Dickens became a clerk in a solicitor's office, and at sixteen, he became a court reporter, a job that taught him much about London and all its people. In 1932, he became a journalist, and in 1834, he became a staff writer for the well-known Morning Chronicle.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1