:: synopsis (chs. 1-8) ::

warning: this will not be tailored for all readers. there will be spoilers, and a lot of them.

        oliver twist is, in essence, the story of a few years in the life of an orphan boy. orphaned at birth, brought up in a workhouse, maltreated, wrongly accused, faced by enormous roadblocks, oliver ultimately overcomes/is rescued and is given the good fortune he deserves. (I said there would be spoilers.) boiled down to the most basic of basic plots, OT sounds pretty dull and preachy; and that's what I expected the first time I read it.
        boy, was I wrong.
        this was dickens's second novel, and it was stunningly popular (especially after naysayers had predicted that he was a one-hit wonder with pickwick papers. he was only 25). it really is an amazing work -- but his clever and cutting satire is very darkly humorous, because the same wordplay and scenarios that amuse are also shocking in their portrayal of the 'workinghouse poor'. "if they're true;" but they were. dickens had experienced these things firsthand. many of his stories feature children, struggling to survive in a world of scavengers, both young and old: because he himself had lived it.
        here's an excerpt from chapter 1:

        Upon this, the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be 'farmed', or, in other words, that he should be despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, rolled about on the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week. Sevenpence-halfpenny's worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny: quite enough to overload its stomach and make it uncomfortable. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children; and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself.

once again, I find myself laughing at his dry, sarcastic statements, only to catch myself as I realize the horrible conditions he is depicting.
        I am constantly impressed by dickens's ability to capture a personality or persona in a few words. the self-righteous and selfish workhouse officials, their cruelty and uncaring attitude towards the destitute -- he conveys it so simply, yet so clearly.

        'Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!'        There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance.        'For more!' said Mr. Limbkins. 'Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?'        'He did, sir,' replied Bumble.        'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. 'I know that boy will be hung.'

his initial depiction of fagin is one of my... can you say favorites?: the "greasy flannel gown", "matted red hair", and grin "with toasting-fork in hand" bring to mind some sort of devil in the flesh, the living embodiment of the dark side of london.

as oliver goes to sleep, though he's been treated better -- and given a more filling meal than ever before in his life -- you have to wonder if he would have been better off at the sowerberrys'. sure, there he was beaten and starved, but wouldn't that be better than here, in the power of someone so sinister? if this is a first-time read (and I'm pretending it is) we can only wait and see :)

courage, haddock. on to chapter nine!