Discussions
1948 Poster for Oliver Twist (detail). Reproduced courtesy of the Calinescu Collection. Toronto Click on image to enlarge it.
Theme & subject
- The Value of Goodness: On Re-reading Oliver Twist
- Problematic aspects of the novel, (including its anti-semitism)
Biographical matters
- Oliver Twist, the Dickensian abandoned child, and the Blacking Works
- Mary Dickens as a source for Rose Maylie
- Dickens's public readings of Sikes' murder of Nancy caused his physical breakdown
Characterization
- Oliver untainted by evil
- Oliver contrasted to Pip
- Dostoevsky on Bill Sykes
- Mr. Brownlow and other Dickensian humanitarians
- Christian innocents in Oliver Twist and other works
- Nancy and Bet in Oliver Twist
Plot & structure
- Oliver Twist and Dickens's movement away from linear narrative
- Oliver Twist opposes the romanticizing proclivities of Harrison Ainsworth and others "Newgate" writers
Social and Political History
- Like Martin Chuzzlewit, it agitates for social reform
- Historical context of the workhouse in the novel
- Oliver Twist serves notice that Dickens turns from comedy to somber probings of Victorian society
- What was the message about prostitution in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield
- “Well, Oliver, how do you like it?”: Dickens, Funerals, and Undertakers
Literary Relations, Critical Reception, and Reputation
- Contemporary Critical Responses to The Early Dickens — Reviews of Sketches by Boz, Pickwick, and Oliver Twist
- Oliver Twist, Dickens's love of the fabulous, and Pilgrim's Progress
- Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby
Image & symbol
- The novel's dual motifs of hanging and infanticide
- Oliver Twist: Laughter and the Rhetoric of Attack (chapter in Kincaid's book on Dickens)
- Early Biblical Boz: The Case of Oliver Twist (chapter in Larson's book on Dickens)
Genre, mode, & style
Illustrators of the Novels (1837-1910)
- George Cruikshank
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley
- Harry Furniss
- J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd")
- James Mahoney
- Charles Pears
- Illustrations for Oliver Twist, 1837-1910
- Depictions of Bumble, the Parish Beadle from Oliver Twist and other Beadles
- The Homeless Poor Act of 1864 — a political cartoon using a figure from Dickens
- Nancy and Bill Sikes in various editions of Oliver Twist (1837-1910)
- Dickens's Illustrators and the botched burglary in Chapter 22 of Oliver Twist (1837-1910)
- J. B. Handelsman’s parody of "Please, sir, I want some more."
Adaptations on Stage and Screen
- Early dramatic adaptations of Oliver Twist (1838-1842)
- More than 400 adaptations for stage, television, and cinema
- Act One, Scene One, Oliver Twist (by Almar?) from the novel by Charles Dickens (November 1838)
- Posters for David Lean’s cinematic adaptation of Oliver Twist
Related material
Last modified 5 January 2022