Book review Oliver Twist
A.
1. Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
2. The story is about a young orphan boy named Oliver Twist.
3. Date of publication: 1838
4. Publisher: Oxford university press
5. 440 pages
6. approximately 20 hours
7. From the 25th of April to the 1st of May.
B.
1. I do remember Oliver Twist from my childhood; I used to watch the soaps in English. Some time ago I watched the movie David Copperfield, which is a filmed version of the novel David Copperfield. I really enjoyed the movie and I almost wanted to do my book review about this book, until I found out that the novel contained for more than 750 pages! And to be honest I’m not that great of a reader so I searched for a smaller book and that’s how I found the filmed version of the novel Oliver Twist. The film was superb! A great storyline and very well acting actors made this film an all time favourite! Together with my earlier experiences with Oliver Twist and this movie I was excited to read the book and had quit great expectations.
2. While reading the book I found out the story in the film differed a bit from the story in the book. Some characters were left out, for example, in the movie, but were essential in the book. Also some dialogues were changed or said by other characters. That kind of confused me for a while, but it didn’t hold me back from reading the book nor decreased my interests in the book. The beautiful novel kept me awake till the latest hours and I loved it.
3. After finishing the book I was relieved that Oliver fortunately got into good hands that cared for him, but I was also sad because of the death of Dick and Nancy, the two people who meant a lot to Oliver, and because I was totally entered into his part I felt his misery and pain. Although it was a tough book to read, because of some difficult words, mostly outdated words, and the novel’s thickness, I managed to understand a lot in the story immediately and when I didn’t I just read it over and over again until I understood.
C.
1. Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse. His mother died right after seeing him and so he became an orphan, because he had neither a mother nor father in this world. He was named by Mr Bumble, who named every orphan child in alphabetical order and when it was Oliver’s turn he had arrived to the letter T of Twist. Oliver had lived at Mrs Mann’s house at the age of 10 months till his ninth year, but was taken back again because of malnutrition. Back at the workhouse he had to work hard and for the compensation he got gruel everyday, but not enough to satisfy him, he was still underfed. And then one day when he asked for more he got punished and the board of the workhouse wanted to get rid of him by sending him away to Mr Sowerberry, an undertaker, and Mrs Sowerberry. There he gets ridiculed by Noah Claypole, another servant of Mr Sowerberry. And when Oliver becomes the mute for children’s practice of the undertaker, Noah gets jealous and starts taunting Oliver about his mother and he presumes so far that little Oliver rouses into action and rather astonishes Noah by beating him to the ground. When Charlotte and Mrs Sowerberry witness this terrible event Oliver gets beaten by the unwilling hands of the undertaker when he gets home. After this accident Oliver sneaks out the house and walks all the way to London.
When Oliver, who was almost starved to death, finally arrived in London, he was found by a boy around his age named Dodger. Dodger made him meet the criminal Fagin, who teaches Oliver to steal.
And at one day Oliver got accused of stealing from a gentleman called Mr Brownlow and got jailed for three months, but fortunately a witness went to the judge and claimed that two other boys were stealing and Oliver was innocent. After this event Mr Brownlow took the sick Oliver with him home. And took care of him until he got better. But in the meantime Fagin was in search for Oliver, because he was afraid that Oliver might tell anyone about their criminal business.
Some time later, when Oliver had to deliver some books and money to the library, he suddenly got captured by Fagin, who brought him back to his house and held him there for a few days.
Nancy, one of Fagin’s henchmen, felt sorry for Oliver and helped him escaping Fagin. After his escape they got in search for him again and this time Fagin’s friend Bill Sikes caught Oliver. Oliver was again brought back to the criminal world and had to burglar a house together with Sikes and Crackit. There Sikes and Crackit left Oliver when he got shot. When he wakes up again he returns to the house and the owners, Mrs Maylie and Rose of the house take care of his wounds.
In the meanwhile Nancy gets to know more about Oliver’s past and decides to tell everything to Mr Brownlow and Rose. They found out that Oliver had a criminal stepbrother called Monks. He was a selfish man who didn’t want anyone to find out about this information, because of the inheritance. After some time Nancy gets caught red handed by Fagin, who found out about everything Nancy had done secretly. When Sikes got to know this, he immediately went to Nancy and killed her on the spot. After this he ran away, but while running away from the police, he accidentally hangs himself. Right after this event Fagin and the gang get caught. Oliver was taken back again to Mr Brownlow’s house and finally gets adopted by him. Fagin on the other hand gets hanged. Earlier Nancy had found out that there was a affiliation between Rose and Oliver. Apparently Rose was the sister of Oliver’s mother, she was his aunt. Eventually Monks had to split the share of the inheritance and give back Oliver’s part. Finally he leaves for America and dies in prison over there while Oliver happily grows up in Mr Brownslow’s house next to Rose and Mrs Maylie’s house.
2. It was a beautiful and emotional book. The way the story was written made me get involved at all times. While reading I noticed a wave motion; at one time Oliver is unhappy and starving and another time he is happy and well-fed, but some time later he again gets unhappy and scattered and after that he meets someone else and becomes happy again and so on. This made me pity Oliver a lot and made me emotional at some times. I also noticed that Dickens describes into each detail. This didn’t bother me at all, because he does it in some kind of way which kept the tense in the story while reading. The number I would give to this novel: a straight A!
D Assignment number one :
Which part(s) of the book made you feel sad, surprised, angry, indignant or happy? Name at least 2 of these emotions, name 2 examples from your book, quote with page references and comment per emotion in about 100 words.
Sad: page 433-436: In this passage Oliver and Mr Brownlow visit Mr Fagin in prison at his last day before getting hanged. I got quite emotional when Mr Fagin was raving nonsense to poor Oliver who, despite of all the bad things Mr Fagin did and wanted to do to him, tried to pray for him and cried to God to forgive his sins. Oliver’s innocence was so pure and loving. I never had expected that he would ever come near such person after so many bad things had passed. It was just so beautiful. I think I might have got more emotional while reading this passage because of the film. In the film it seemed so real and also really piteous when Oliver walked away crying from Mr Fagin who was still screaming. It really made me emotional.
Indignant: page 379-383: In this passage Mr Fagin and Noah betrayed Nancy by telling Sikes that Nancy had told everything about them to Mr Brownlow and Rose. Here Sikes got furious and directly went to Nancy. And there he, despite of Nancy’s boggle, killed her with some bullets apparently through the head and finished it by striking her down with a club. To be honest this was a horrifying moment. I was sad and very indignant while reading this passage. “How can Nancy, the good girl, die now? She had to help Oliver! Why didn’t Sykes die? That brute murderer!” these were the thoughts I had when I finished the passage, I was indignant and couldn’t accept Nancy’s death, because in most books good things happen to good people and she had been wrong almost al her life, by stealing, and now, when she finally got into the right path, she got murdered! This kind of shocked me and increased my hatred towards Sykes.
A.
1. Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
2. The story is about a young orphan boy named Oliver Twist.
3. Date of publication: 1838
4. Publisher: Oxford university press
5. 440 pages
6. approximately 20 hours
7. From the 25th of April to the 1st of May.
B.
1. I do remember Oliver Twist from my childhood; I used to watch the soaps in English. Some time ago I watched the movie David Copperfield, which is a filmed version of the novel David Copperfield. I really enjoyed the movie and I almost wanted to do my book review about this book, until I found out that the novel contained for more than 750 pages! And to be honest I’m not that great of a reader so I searched for a smaller book and that’s how I found the filmed version of the novel Oliver Twist. The film was superb! A great storyline and very well acting actors made this film an all time favourite! Together with my earlier experiences with Oliver Twist and this movie I was excited to read the book and had quit great expectations.
2. While reading the book I found out the story in the film differed a bit from the story in the book. Some characters were left out, for example, in the movie, but were essential in the book. Also some dialogues were changed or said by other characters. That kind of confused me for a while, but it didn’t hold me back from reading the book nor decreased my interests in the book. The beautiful novel kept me awake till the latest hours and I loved it.
C.
1. Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse. His mother died right after seeing him and so he became an orphan, because he had neither a mother nor father in this world. He was named by Mr Bumble, who named every orphan child in alphabetical order and when it was Oliver’s turn he had arrived to the letter T of Twist. Oliver had lived at Mrs Mann’s house at the age of 10 months till his ninth year, but was taken back again because of malnutrition. Back at the workhouse he had to work hard and for the compensation he got gruel everyday, but not enough to satisfy him, he was still underfed. And then one day when he asked for more he got punished and the board of the workhouse wanted to get rid of him by sending him away to Mr Sowerberry, an undertaker, and Mrs Sowerberry. There he gets ridiculed by Noah Claypole, another servant of Mr Sowerberry. And when Oliver becomes the mute for children’s practice of the undertaker, Noah gets jealous and starts taunting Oliver about his mother and he presumes so far that little Oliver rouses into action and rather astonishes Noah by beating him to the ground. When Charlotte and Mrs Sowerberry witness this terrible event Oliver gets beaten by the unwilling hands of the undertaker when he gets home. After this accident Oliver sneaks out the house and walks all the way to London.
When Oliver, who was almost starved to death, finally arrived in London, he was found by a boy around his age named Dodger. Dodger made him meet the criminal Fagin, who teaches Oliver to steal.
And at one day Oliver got accused of stealing from a gentleman called Mr Brownlow and got jailed for three months, but fortunately a witness went to the judge and claimed that two other boys were stealing and Oliver was innocent. After this event Mr Brownlow took the sick Oliver with him home. And took care of him until he got better. But in the meantime Fagin was in search for Oliver, because he was afraid that Oliver might tell anyone about their criminal business.
Some time later, when Oliver had to deliver some books and money to the library, he suddenly got captured by Fagin, who brought him back to his house and held him there for a few days.
Nancy, one of Fagin’s henchmen, felt sorry for Oliver and helped him escaping Fagin. After his escape they got in search for him again and this time Fagin’s friend Bill Sikes caught Oliver. Oliver was again brought back to the criminal world and had to burglar a house together with Sikes and Crackit. There Sikes and Crackit left Oliver when he got shot. When he wakes up again he returns to the house and the owners, Mrs Maylie and Rose of the house take care of his wounds.
In the meanwhile Nancy gets to know more about Oliver’s past and decides to tell everything to Mr Brownlow and Rose. They found out that Oliver had a criminal stepbrother called Monks. He was a selfish man who didn’t want anyone to find out about this information, because of the inheritance. After some time Nancy gets caught red handed by Fagin, who found out about everything Nancy had done secretly. When Sikes got to know this, he immediately went to Nancy and killed her on the spot. After this he ran away, but while running away from the police, he accidentally hangs himself. Right after this event Fagin and the gang get caught. Oliver was taken back again to Mr Brownlow’s house and finally gets adopted by him. Fagin on the other hand gets hanged. Earlier Nancy had found out that there was a affiliation between Rose and Oliver. Apparently Rose was the sister of Oliver’s mother, she was his aunt. Eventually Monks had to split the share of the inheritance and give back Oliver’s part. Finally he leaves for America and dies in prison over there while Oliver happily grows up in Mr Brownslow’s house next to Rose and Mrs Maylie’s house.
D Assignment number one :
Which part(s) of the book made you feel sad, surprised, angry, indignant or happy? Name at least 2 of these emotions, name 2 examples from your book, quote with page references and comment per emotion in about 100 words.
Sad: page 433-436: In this passage Oliver and Mr Brownlow visit Mr Fagin in prison at his last day before getting hanged. I got quite emotional when Mr Fagin was raving nonsense to poor Oliver who, despite of all the bad things Mr Fagin did and wanted to do to him, tried to pray for him and cried to God to forgive his sins. Oliver’s innocence was so pure and loving. I never had expected that he would ever come near such person after so many bad things had passed. It was just so beautiful. I think I might have got more emotional while reading this passage because of the film. In the film it seemed so real and also really piteous when Oliver walked away crying from Mr Fagin who was still screaming. It really made me emotional.
Indignant: page 379-383: In this passage Mr Fagin and Noah betrayed Nancy by telling Sikes that Nancy had told everything about them to Mr Brownlow and Rose. Here Sikes got furious and directly went to Nancy. And there he, despite of Nancy’s boggle, killed her with some bullets apparently through the head and finished it by striking her down with a club. To be honest this was a horrifying moment. I was sad and very indignant while reading this passage. “How can Nancy, the good girl, die now? She had to help Oliver! Why didn’t Sykes die? That brute murderer!” these were the thoughts I had when I finished the passage, I was indignant and couldn’t accept Nancy’s death, because in most books good things happen to good people and she had been wrong almost al her life, by stealing, and now, when she finally got into the right path, she got murdered! This kind of shocked me and increased my hatred towards Sykes.
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