Who Wrote “Oliver Twist”
Oliver Twist is a classic piece of literature that was written in 1838. The books subtitle was The Parish Boys Progress which was meant to draw a parallel to The Pilgrims Progress written by John Bunyan. The novel is the story of an orphan boy, Oliver Twist, and his horrible existence working in a workhouse in England. Oliver soon runs away from the workhouse to London where he falls in with a gang of pickpockets. In essence the book was a social commentary on the evils of the time which included child labour, use of children in criminal activities and the alarming number of street children in London in the 1830’s. The book has since been made into numerous films and television shows as well as a musical play and motion picture.
Who Wrote “Oliver Twist”?
Oliver twist was the second novel to be written by famous English author Charles Dickens. It was published by Richard Bentley. It originally appeared as monthly instalments from February 1837 until April 1839 accompanied by one steel etching per month as an illustration. Six months before the series was completed a novelised version was released. It was published as three volumes under the pseudonym Boz with the title Oliver Twist. It is thought that Charles Dickens drew from his own experiences as a child laborer to create the story. He repeatedly draws attention to the limited choices that children had due to effects of industrialism and harsh laws passed by the government of the time.
Charles Dickens is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and was well known for his critic of social standards and norms. In his career he wrote 15 novels as well as hundreds of short stories and magazine articles. Some of his most famous works include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, The Pickwick Papers, The tale of two Cities and Great Expectations.
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