Oliver Twist, the book

I always have a book going, sometimes two or three. At any given time, I usually have a fiction book I read before I go to sleep, and a nonfiction book or two I am reading during the daytime.

We live in a time when there are enormous numbers of books to choose from. As the bumper sticker says, "So many books, so little time."

Having taken a trip to Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago, they have these neat little editions of classics available about the size of a paperback book except that the pages are gold edged and they have a ribbon in them and they were selling for $4.95.

Having read Great Expectations during high school, I have never read any other of Charles Dickens books and so I bought Tales Of Two Cities and Oliver Twist. I have loved both. He is one heck of a great writer. I just finished Oliver Twist and enjoyed it immensely.

"Oliver Twist's famous cry of the heart--"Please, sir, I want some more"--has resounded with generations of readers of all ages. The author poured his own youthful experience of Victorian London's unspeakable squalor into this realistic depiction 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."

There are also memorable good people like Mr. Brownlow and Lady Maylie who rescue and believe in Oliver.

While the settings of Dickens' novels are usually in the early 1800s, the moral dilemnas his characters face are relevant and fresh today.

Oliver Twist is orphaned and brought up by self serving caretakers who go through the motions of appearing to care for children but wind up depriving them of the necessities of life, even food. The thieves of the day try to recruit Oliver into a life of crime after he runs away looking for a better life. In our modern day they might be crack dealers in any inner city or gang leader looking for 10 and 11 year old recruits who have parents, drug addicted themselves, who cannot care adequately for their children.

The book may be old fashioned in that the good guys triumph in the end while the bad guys pay the costs for their crimes. Life nowdays is not always that simple. Oliver Twist is a morality story and it is satisfying if not always realistic.

I highly recommend Oliver Twist.