"OLIVER TWIST" wrote
by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist was
published between February 1837 and April 1839 in a magazine called
Bentley's Miscellany. It's Dickens second novel and possibly his most famous.
Oliver Twist focussed social
problems: the spread of crime, maltreatment of children and the immorality of
institutions, supposed to help the poor, particularly the workhouses, which
were created, by the New Poor Law, of 1834.
Oliver Twist is the
first English novel with a child protagonist and is also notable Dickens
unromantic portraits of criminals and their sordid lives. An early example of
the social novel, the book calls the public's attention to various social
evils, including the workhouse. Dickens
mocks the hypocrisies of the time by surrounding the novel serious themes with
sarcasm and dark humour.
In the midst of
corruption and degradation, the essentially passive Oliver, remains
pure-hearted. Charity and love are important motifs in Oliver Twist. Oliver
receives love and kindness from few
people: the old magistrate, who saves him from Mr. Gamfield, the bookseller who
gives evidence to clear him, and, of course, Mr. Brownlow, Rose Maylie and
Nancy who died to save Oliver.
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