Dickensians! discussion

OLIVER TWIST: THREAD 1

Original title Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress



John Howard Davies as Oliver Twist in 1948

Frontispiece and title-page from the first book edition in 1838 - George Cruikshank

LINKS TO CHAPTERS: (ongoing)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

IMPORTANT TIPS

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

The Original Publication

Oliver Twist or, The Parish Boys Progress is generally regarded as Charles Dickens's second novel (the first being The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club I). However, it was first published in monthly installments, between February 1837 and April 1839, in the popular magazine "Bentley's Miscellany". You may remember that we have read articles from "Bentley's Miscellany" before, in our short reads.

In fact Charles Dickens had not even originally planned to make the story of Oliver a complete novel!

The story began as a continuation of his serial The Mudfog Papers, based on Chatham, Kent, his childhood home. However by the sixth installment of the story, Charles Dickens had decided to make the book the first of two novels he was contracted to write for Richard Bentley Publisher and began to introduce details in the story that hinted at future plot complications.

Charles Dickens had just moved to his home in Doughty Street, London (my profile picture shows me outside it, as it is now the "Charles Dickens Museum") on the proceeds of his money from The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club I. Incredibly enough, Oliver Twist or, The Parish Boys Progress was partly written concurrently with this - and also with his next novel, Nicholas Nickleby. This method of juggling different projects at the same time was to continue all his life. We may notice a difference in tone, depending on whether he was also writing a humorous part in one chapter of these other works, or a sad one.

George Cruikshank provided one steel etching per month to illustrate each installment, all 24 of which I will include with the summaries, as well as a few others from famous illustrators of Charles Dickens, if there is no illustration for that chapter.

The novel first appeared in book form six months before the initial serialisation was completed, in three volumes published by Richard Bentley, the owner of Bentley's Miscellany. It was published as by "Boz", the pseudonym Charles Dickens was known by at the time, as we can see from the frontispiece (message 2).

Here is the original publishing schedule of the serial, so that you can plan the breaks ahead, if you wish.

Installment—Date of publication—Chapters:

I - February 1837 - chapters 1–2
II – March 1837 - chapters 3–4
III – April 1837 - chapters 5–6
IV – May 1837 - chapters 7–8
V – July 1837 - chapters 9–11
VI – August 1837 - chapters 12–13
VII – September 1837 - chapters 14–15
VIII – November 1837 - chapters 16–17
IX – December 1837 - chapters 18–19
X – January 1838 - chapters 20–22
XI – February 1838 - chapters 23–25
XII – March 1838 - chapters 26–27
XIII – April 1838 - chapters 28–30
XIV – May 1838 - chapters 31–32
XV – June 1838 - chapters 33–34
XVI – July 1838 - chapters 35–37
XVII – August 1838 - chapters 38–part of 39
XVIII – October 1838 - conclusion of chapter 39–41
XIX – November 1838 - chapters 42–43
XX – December 1838 - chapters 44–46
XXI – January 1839 - chapters 47–49
XXII – February 1839 - chapter 50
XXIII – March 1839 - chapter 51
XXIV – April 1839 - chapters 52–53

Reading Schedule and general guidelines

We will read one chapter a day as usual, and have a day's break at the end of each original installment, to make the most of Charles Dickens's cliffhangers and give us more time to discuss in depth.

In Oliver Twist, the installments were published once a month as you can see, and comprise 2 or 3 chapters. Thus the entire serialised novel took over 2 years to read! We can't recapture the original experience, as the story is so familiar, but we can mimic the original readers' excitement at each plot turn, and their steady growth of expectations. Please therefore, as always, be careful of spoilers, for those who do not know the story. Also, beware of googling. Just googling one name can immediately give a huge spoiler at a glance 🙄 The same goes for wiki, or the Victorian Web—unless of course you know the novel already. New members, please be aware that we take the matter of spoilers very seriously indeed, especially in a novel.

I'm afraid that even the best editions of Charles Dickens's novels often also contain spoilers in the notes. It's already happened to several of our members in a read. One Oxford edition notoriously contained a spoiler in the actual footnotes!

Also, we found with another group read of a Charles Dickens novel that there were two Oxford editions, and one contained substantially more than the other. Neither were abridged, it was just material that Charles Dickens had chosen to add or remove at different times. I do have facsimiles of all his original notes, so I can comment on this as we go 😊 In fact any of the reputable editions are all OK for this read, as we will be able to talk about these variations as we are reading. It will be interesting to compare them, if we are reading a selection of editions of Oliver Twist.

Take care though ... in a recent development, Audible now abridges some of their titles, so you may like to check the total hours, if you use Audible. An unabridged edition should be about 16 hours 54 minutes (give or take a few minutes for different narrators).

Please share here the edition you are using, if you like. It will be be fascinating to examine such an early work by the Inimitable together, and the changes he made.

Our way takes 2 and a half months, starting from May 1st. As I said, instead of a month between parts, we just have one day, and have found this works very well. I'm really excited about it 😊

Adaptations:

There have been numerous different adaptations over the years. Oliver Twist is one of the most dramatised of Charles Dickens's works. In fact it was appearing in 10 theatres in London, before the serial was even completed!

The Internet Movie Database lists nearly 25 film versions, with the earliest (silent) film being in 1906! If you'd like to share your favourites, I'll add them here:

1. Arguably the best film adaptation of Oliver Twist is that by David Lean in 1948, starring Alec Guinness as Fagin. The young actor John Howard Davies, who played Oliver (see our cover picture) went on to become a film director and producer.

2. The most popular adaptation is the musical "Oliver!" by Lionel Bart, who wrote both the music and lyrics. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, SW London in 1960. There was a film adaptation in 1968, directed by Carol Reed, which won six Academy Awards.

3. My personal favourite (apart from the old David Lean one) is the Alan Bleasdale dramatisation from 1999 because he included so much more, and extrapolated the back story from the information in the novel about (view spoiler)[Oliver's half-brother (hide spoiler)]. There's two hours of back story before starting the novel!

Link to wiki here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_... if you've never seen it, but please beware as THIS WIKI ARTICLE HAS MANY SPOILERS

Our side read:

Our side read for Oliver Twist is Dickens and the Workhouse: Oliver Twist and the London Poor by Ruth Richardson.

This will begin officially on 1st June, and continue right through the summer. Of courser it's up to you if you want to make a early start though 😉 Since it may well contain spoilers for the story, could the first friends to read it please let me know so that I can alert the group. Thanks!

It is sometimes thought that Charles Dickens might have exaggerated the conditions in the workhouses, as part of his "persuasive literature" for effect. Ruth Richardson, set out to investigate the conditions in Dickens and the Workhouse: Oliver Twist and the London Poor. She wrote it after discovering that as a boy Charles Dickens had lived within a mile of the "Cleveland Street Workhouse".

And a little more ...

About our side read:

Charles Dickens lived in Cleveland Street from when he was nearly 3 to nearly 5 years old. But as we all know, Charles Dickens's father was then arrested for debt and the family was forced to live inside the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison in Southwark. The family returned to the same house in Norfolk/Cleveland Street several years later, when Charles Dickens was nearly seventeen, and stayed until he was almost twenty. During that time, he was out at work as a young legal clerk, and training himself to become a shorthand court reporter. So it was all very familiar to him.

Just a taster of what is to come 😊

Here is wiki on the Cleveland Street Workhouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevela...

(There are no spoilers in this)

If during the read you find an interesting article that you would like to share, then please feel free to do so - providing there are no spoilers! This means that you need to read it carefully yourself first. Otherwise it's a good idea to write the most interesting points in your own words. Actually this is always the best option, as not everyone can follow a link.

For whatever it's worth, I read this novel in the Dodd Mead's Great Illustrated Classics series edition; all the reprints in this series are unabridged. This one uses the text of the 1841 second hardcover edition, and includes Dicken's own Preface to it.

I agree with Jean on the notes in Oxford World Classics and even sometimes in some Penguin Classics (e.g. North and South by Mrs Gaskell). They are at times so detailed that they contain spoilers. Appendixes (e.g. in Sylvia's Lovers, Oxford) are meant to be useful even in the course of reading but they do contain spoilers.

I was not bothered by spoilers in notes in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and Dombey and Son (Wordsworth). Both are novels with a strong plot element - as are Dickens's novels - and a mystery revealed very late into the plot. Wordsworth's notes are very concise and limited to foreign expressions and allusions to Shakespearean quotes or Bible verses.

I will be reading from a Penguin Classics edition, which is using the text from the original periodical version. I like the Penguin Classics editions because they usually have notes explaining some of the terms used in the book. I do not read introductions or anything else that might give away the story.

Somehow I missed Jean's post above so I ended up repeating some of what she said. I am editing this post to leave out those parts.

I see I have two versions of the book on my kindle but I haven’t checked them out yet to see which is better or if either is really good. Hopefully one is.

I ordered the black and white Penguin Classics edition. I've always found their notes in back very useful. It has been years since I saw "Oliver" in the theater, and I'll probably appreciate it more now that I know more about Dickens' concern for impoverished children.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Adaptations:

There have been numerous different adaptations over the years. Oliver Twist is one of the most dramatised of Charles Dickens's works. In fact it was appea..."

Sure, how about Oliver! which might not be the closest to the book, but I have fond childhood memories of watching this.

I just ordered the black & white (cover) Penguin edition.

I did check out the copies I have on my kindle and realize that neither one appears to be what I want. I bought another copy today, one that is unabridged and has illustrations. There don’t appear to be footnotes or any discussion of the novel but I figure the group will serve that purpose.

I am going to try Audible version of this narrated by Jonathan Pryce and read along with the Gutenberg original 1839 edition illustrated by Cruikshank. I think the hardest thing to do for those of us having read the book before will be to try and read it as if it were new and to avoid comments based on prior knowledge, which might prove spoilerish for readers coming to the book for the first time. I definitely envy the latter. BTW, Simon Vance would be my normal go to narrator for the book but I wanted to try something new.

Sam wrote: "I definitely envy the latter ..."

Me too Sam, but I'm loving everyone's enthusiasm 😊

I will post a summary each reading day, as usual, and each one will be linked to the beginning of each thread. In this case the summaries' main purpose will be to pinpoint exactly where we are, because of the story's familiarity. So you should not need to worry about spoilers if you are reading along anyway and have recent events in your mind, and check the daily post before posting your own.

The summaries will be just short reminders, which is different from those I wrote for three middle novels we read. This is because the language is simpler in Oliver Twist, and it's a linear novel, so hopefully those whose first language is not English won't have to tussle with it as much as in Bleak House, for instance.

I'm also going to post all the George Cruikshank illustrations as they occur. I usually try to cover the later Victorian illustrators too, but there's a huge plethora for Oliver Twist. I'll include as many as I can though.

I plan to join this one as well; Looking forward to it!

My library gave me the Signet Classic edition which has an introduction and an afterward and doesn't put notes in the text or anything so that is good. I've read the book but will skip the introduction all the same so there will be more details I'll have forgotten.

Good idea Karin.

Our side read is also on our shelves, but I'll put a later start date on it so that whoever reads it first can tell us if there are any spoilers!

This is wonderful. I have never read "Oliver Twist", so I will attempt to follow along, and positively contribute to the discussion.

P.S.: The Audible.com version of a book promoted on this group "The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London" by Judith Flanders is free for Audible.com subscribers.

Michael - yay! Good to see you. I'm delighted that both you and Greg will be joining in this one 😊

Hi Everyone! I'll be joining in as well. Looking forward to it!

Great to see you commenting here Erich! I look forward to you joining in as well 😊

Very slightly late to the party here. I will join in on the read, too, with the Audible narration by Jonathan Pryce, with the Norton Critical Edition to hand, adding to my (very small) shelf of those editions. The paper copy may not be necessary if the language is simpler than Bleak House's, which Jean alludes to in message 20, but the supplementary material in the NCEs makes them nice to have after I've finished the main text.

I am near-completely unfamiliar with this story, having neither read it nor seen any film or stage adaptation. In very vague terms, I am aware of two of the central characters, but not anything they do or have happen to them. Looking forward to exploring it with everyone. :)

Beth wrote: "I will join in on the read, too, with the Audible narration by Jonathan Pryce, with the Norton Critical Edition to hand, adding to my (very small) shelf of tho..."

That's good to hear! These editions are excellent, but please don't read the notes until you're sure it is safe. Yes, everything about this novel is simpler than Bleak House, although the plot does get nicely complex in the second half 😊

I'm really pleased we have a variety of editions used. I've been looking into it, and Charles Dickens revised Oliver Twist half a dozen times or more, between 1837 and 1846! He even went back to calling himself "Boz", in an 1840 edition, as he had done for the first serial edition, before finally deciding on Charles Dickens.

Is anyone using the Clarendon edition from 1966, with an introduction by Kathleen Tillotson?

If so, please be aware that that one is rather controversial. It is from the 1841 edition, in which Charles Dickens had cut out some of the melodrama, altered the punctuation and renumbered the chapters to make 10 installments rather than 20. Kathleen Tillotson's introduction also has some contentious ideas which other critics have challenged.

But please don't worry about your particular edition, as there will be a brief summary of each chapter, to pinpoint exactly where we are. This has proved invaluable to those listening on audio too, as the chapters are not always announced 🙄

Beth wrote: "Very slightly late to the party here. I will join in on the read, too, with the Audible narration by Jonathan Pryce, with the Norton Critical Edition to hand, adding to my (very small) shelf of tho..."

It's going to be even more fun discussing this with a first timer to this classic book ;) !

How exciting to see the information you've added, Jean--thank you! I was at the library today and saw the edition I'll likely be reading, the Oxford illustrated. I peeked inside, fondled it a little, and put it back on the shelf to wait until closer to when we start. :-)

I was so sorry I wasn't able to join Plateresca's Somebody's Luggage, which looks like everyone enjoyed. So I'm all the more ready to dig in again with this group!

I think the actual book of Oliver Twist is new to several here, and at the other end of our readership, some will have read it many times! Others too may not have read it for more years than they care to remember ...

But I can guarantee there will be something new for everyone, as that is what our "Dickensians!" reads are like 😊 And as you rightly say Karin, it is partly the broad spectrum of responses which makes this so much fun! Pleasure in the read is just as important as our more scholarly comments.

Kathleen - It's lovely to have you aboard too! I like the idea of caressing a precious novel by the master ...

And don't worry, Plateresca's exceptional read of Somebody's Luggage will remain there, for whenever anyone would like to read it and add comments retrospectively, as all our group reads do. Three or four friends are adding to Dombey and Son right now!

Yes, I've just finished adding to the introductory comments, so make sure you check them out everyone, before you begin. But please don't read Dickens's Prefaces if the novel is new to you!

I have the Barnes and Nobles classic edition, which I have read and the foot notes in that one were actually pretty good about spoilers- except for one for chapter one that spoiled a major event! However, I don't rember what it spoiled now so :) Looking forward to revisiting this with the group!

Beth, Jean, thank you for the info on Norton Critical Editions! I didn't know about them; will try to order their 'Oliver Twist', what you're saying sounds seriously good!

Kathleen, if you ever read 'Somebody's Luggage', I'll be happy to discuss it with you in that thread :)

Jean, thank you for the introductory comments!

Plateresca wrote: "Beth, Jean, thank you for the info on Norton Critical Editions! I didn't know about them ..."

They tend to have scholarly essays included, and include Charles Dickens's mems for the middle and later novels. There's little of this for Oliver Twist though, because it was only going to a be short piece to start with! But as Beth said, they are good editions to own (if you can cope with the print size).

The essays are obviously best left until after our read, for discussion then.

Welcome Jenny! I'm delighted you're in once again too, and thanks for the slight warning 😊

Beth wrote: "Very slightly late to the party here. I will join in on the read, too, with the Audible narration by Jonathan Pryce, with the Norton Critical Edition to hand, adding to my (very small) shelf of tho..."
I am also nearly unfamiliar with the story. I have never read the book. I may have seen a movie version when I was a kid, but I have no memory of it. I have only heard references to it, so have some vague idea of what it is about.

Thank you, Jean.

And Plateresca, I hope to take you up on that kind offer to discuss Somebody's Luggage before too long! :-)

Thanks Jean :) It's always fun and informative reading with the group- I am interested in the side read as well, Charles Dickens becomes more fascinating the more I learn about him!

Kathleen wrote: "And Plateresca, I hope to take you up on that kind offer to discuss Somebody's Luggage before too long! :-)"
Please do! :)

I found this 1887 edition from an American publisher on eBay:



I did not realize when I purchased the book it also includes Charles Dickens' "Child's History of England". I did not know he wrote a history book:

That's a nice edition Michael 😊 It's good that several of you have editions with the illustrations by George Cruikshank. The one you have posted from the flyleaf is the most famous one in all his oeuvre! And he was quite prolific, illustrating other authors too.

Dickens and the Workhouse is now three dollars cheaper on US kindle!

The book is so good that there is a twist even on the cover :)


Last Movie: Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988) 5/10

Michael wrote: "I found this 1887 edition from an American publisher on eBay:



I did not realize when I purchased the book it also includes Charles Dickens' "Child's History of England". I did not know he wrote ..."
Great find!

I have to cull books before I can buy more. That said, I've bought three recently and I mainly use the library. It's those Amazon points that are at fault. I haven't got enough shelf space and we don't really have room to add more. Of course, if my husband would reduce his antique bottle collection that would help!

Bionic Jean wrote: "That's a nice edition Michael 😊 It's good that several of you have editions with the illustrations by George Cruikshank. The one you have posted from the flyleaf is the most famous o..."

The Norton Critical Edition has only four of Cruikshank's illustrations. A cover illustration (a number of smaller illustrations as a kind of frame around the title page info), the one in messages 2 and 43, and two different versions of another illustration, one in color (on the NCE's cover) and the other in black and white.

Since cover links can mess up visibility of messages on the app if placed anywhere in the body (oh, Goodreads), I'll put the NCE cover here at the end.

Beth wrote: "The Norton Critical Edition has only four of Cruikshank's illustrations. A cover illustration (a number of smaller illustrations as a kind of frame around the title page info) ..."

I had wanted to put George Cruikshank's wrapper as our cover for this thread, just as I have done, using the original wrappers with our previous reads of Charles Dickens's novels. However this one has scenes from the novel all round, (as you describe) telling the whole story! This style of illustration is common with what are called the "wrappers" for each monthly part of a novel by Charles Dickens, when it was issued later (i.e. not part of "Bentley's Miscellany") in just 10 parts.

However, by that time it was assumed that everyone had already read and knew the story, so these images contain spoilers - eek! I can't even use it for our 6th and final thread, as one scene is very near the end. So please don't look too closely at that one, Beth!

Actually my edition has a precis of the entire story in 4 or 5 sentences on the first page, which is terrible for new readers 😠

By the way, the reason this thread is titled chapter 1 - (left blank) is because once when I put the end chapter in the title, a new reader came in and discussed the final chapter when we were only part way through - Ahhh! In fact this thread will end with chapter 8.

Not to worry, Jean, I know so little about these characters or the story that not much of it really registered with me. Only the very vague notion that, well, never mind. :)

Thanks Beth, that's a relief!

It's so tricky! Charles Dickens's later illustrators such as Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") drew more images on the frame, so that they were smaller, and slightly disguised. They intertwine, and are not distinct little pictures. You have to really look closely to work out what it is! But George Cruikshank's are separate little drawings, with an square frame around each one, and sometimes it will clearly illustrate a particularly dramatic scene.

I posted some of Phiz's as covers for our reads, without worrying about spoilers. But George Cruikshank tells the whole story in a few pictures. And I have a feeling that as we learn more, the images will begin to make sense, and then they might well act as spoilers, especially as we then recognise the characters in them.

But I'll post the wrapper for the ten installment edition at the end, after we've had the last scene in the cameo illustration.

(Edited)