Oliver Twist - Book Report

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One of the most popular melodramas of the Edwardian and Victorian era demonstrated a new type of fiction. The story of a young orphan boy called Oliver Twist, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a gang of thieves, provides you with an emotional roller-coaster that contains some truly memorable characters. Dickens’ contrasting tale of childhood innocence and a cruel society conveys the image of an ever changing British way of life. As well as being a remarkable novel, Charles Dickens produced a very important document in social history as the story highlights the awful conditions orphans had to live in within the era. The book was originally published in Bentley's Miscellany as a serial, in monthly instalments that began appearing in the month of February 1837 and continued until April 1839. It is important to remember this when analysing the structure of the novel as well as Dickens’ attempts to keep consumers’ demand and interest for the story. Oliver Twist was born in the earlier half of the 19th century and given to an orphanage after his mother died in child birth. Along with numerous other children of the same age Oliver is badly treated, beaten and starved half to death within the walls of the workhouse. In a famous episode, he walks up to the stern authoritarian, Mr Bumble, and asks for more. This impetuousness from Oliver causes Mr Bumble to get rid of the child and to send him to another family. Oliver Twist finally decides his life is going nowhere and attempts to escape from the family and head to London to make a living for himself. Instead, he falls in with a boy called Jack Dawkins, who is part of a child gang of thieves-run by Fagin. Oliver is brought into the gang and trained as a pickpocket. When he goes out on his first job, he runs away and is nearly sent to prison. However, the kindness of the person who was robbed, saves

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