3 Stars.
Pros: The foggy, smoky, dirty, loud, violent crowd of the London Streets are easily seen through Dickens' words/The Artful Dodger's "Devil may care" attitude towards crime and life in general is amusing, for someone so young.
Cons: Dickens is not an author you can read while laying down because you will fall asleep/His writing is not entirely engaging but he grabs you enough to make you curious as to what will happen to the characters/About halfway through the book there were a bit too many subplots and evil associates that I just wanted to know about Oliver and didn't care much about all the rest though by the end it all came together very conveniently.
Full Review:
Oliver's mother dies giving birth to him and he's turned over to the Parrish to live in the dormitories and do back breaking work all day. Told by his peers to go up to the cook and ask for more gruel, he's immediately thrown into solitary confinement and sold out to the highest bidder who wants to take him on as an apprentice, who turns out to be a coffin maker.
One day, the other apprentice, Noah, is giving Oliver a hard time and says something nasty about his mother. Oliver attacks him and is thrown into the cellar when the mistress of the house returns and she runs off to Mr. Bumble, the Parrish Beadle, to demand something be done about Oliver, since he's obviously deranged. Bumble and the Coffin Maker, soundly beat Oliver and the next morning he packs up his things and heads off to London, sick of it all.
He walks for seven days and once he reaches a small village on the outskirts of London, he's too exhausted to go on. He sees a boy watching him from across the road and eventually the boy comes over to introduce himself. Jack Dawkins is his name, but he's more commonly known as the Artful Dodger. And he knows a man who would let Oliver stay with him in London for free. Oliver's jumps at the chance and after getting some food, he and Artful head off to London, where Artful introduces him to Fagin.
Oliver's life takes a turn for the surreal after that. He learns that Fagin is the head of a group of outlaws and criminals, mainly pickpockets and poor, noble Oliver is horrified at what he sees. He tries to escape the life but is continuously dragged back into it, always against his will. And even when he does happen upon a better situation, Fagin and his cronies are like ghosts haunting him.
Since Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in a serial format, meaning it was published monthly in a periodical, he obviously wanted to keep his readers engaged with lots of subplots and other characters. He does this well, tying all the loose ends together at the end in a neat little bow. Good triumphs over evil and the world is at it should be. It was a long, at times, tiresome read but it's been on my "to read" list years, so now, I have read it and can move on. If you're a fan of Dickensian London then I'm sure you'll enjoy Oliver Twist.
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