Summary
Set in Victorian London, this is a tale of a spirited young innocent's unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves. Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens' most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger.
From Publishers Weekly
A Twist of Beauty An inviting design may inspire readers of a newly abridged edition of Charles Dickens's classic Oliver Twist to join the hero in asking, please sir, for more. Christian Birmingham spots nearly every page of text with a small, charcoal-gray image, and complements important scenes with full-page color illustrations. Birmingham's hues are predominantly deep, somber and gritty, but not without occasional flashes of royal blues and golds. Text is shaded in the faintest yellow, soft on the eye.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8. This attractive, oversized adaptation remains true to the classic in plot and in atmosphere. Even though some minor characters and scenes have been omitted entirely, many lines of dialogue and paragraphs of description, including Nancy's death and Fagin's last hours in a jail cell, are repeated verbatim from Dickens's original, maintaining the ambiance as well as the story line. Readers who are only familiar with the play or movie will be surprised to find Dickens's plot more complicated than the simple version used for stage and screen and may need to do some rereading to realize that things are not what they expected. One fortunate omission from the original is that Fagin is just Fagin, without any ethnic description attached. The text is illustrated with occasional, small, black-and-white drawings and full-page, full-color, dark, moody paintings that add to the atmosphere and help keep readers involved through large, full pages of text. Consider this for all libraries?it's still a great story, and this adaptation may actually get some young people to read it.?Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Nine-year-old Oliver has spent his life in a workhouse orphanage, where he becomes notorious for daring to ask for more food. Frustrated and hungry, he runs away to London, where he falls into the company of a gang of clever pickpockets, including Fagin, Bill Sykes, and the Artful Dodger. Oliver’s future looks uncertain, until a mysterious plot against him is unraveled by the kind Mr. Brownlow. What will become of poor Oliver Twist?
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The inimitable Martin Jarvis brings his talents to bear on Charles Dickens's classic in an audiobook that will delight listeners with its superb recreations of gritty 19th-century London. To escape Mr. Bumble and life in the workhouse, Oliver flees to London where he meets the Artful Dodger and becomes embroiled with Fagin's ragtag band of thieves. Jarvis simply dazzles: his performance captures both the humor and sorrow of the text, his narration is crisp, and his characterizations--his rendition of the terrifying district magistrate, Mr. Fang, is particularly memorable--are as varied as they are energetic, befitting, and enjoyable.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Library Journal
Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle. Clearly, a reading of this work must carry the author's passionate narrative voice while being flexible and broad enough to define the wide range of character voices suggested by the text. John Wells's capable but bland reading only suggests the rich possibilities of the material. Restraint and Dickens simply don't go together. The abridgment deftly and seamlessly manages to deliver all major characters and plot lines, but there are many superior audiobook versions of this material, both abridged and unabridged. Not recommended.
-John Owen, Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
