Introducing Oliver Twist | Mega Dickens Readalong
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- Опубліковано 29 лис 2022
- #Victober #Dickensalong
In which I introduce Oliver Twist. . .
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens: / 18254.oliver_twist
The audiobook I’m listening to: www.audible.co.uk/pd/Oliver-T...
More about the Mega Dickens Readalong
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The Schedule
The Pickwick Papers, 1837: October and November 2022
Oliver Twist, 1838: December 2022
Nicholas Nickleby, 1839: January and February 2023
The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841: March 2023
Barnaby Rudge, 1841: April and May 2023
Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844: June and July 2023
Dombey and Son, 1848: August and September 2023
David Copperfield, 1850: October and November 2023
Bleak House, 1853: December 2023 and January 2024
Hard Times, 1854: February 2024
Little Dorrit, 1855: March and April 2024
A Tale of Two Cities, 1859: May 2024
Great Expectations, 1861: June 2024
Our Mutual Friend, 1865: July and August 2024
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870: September 2024
My Debut Novel
My debut novel, The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, is coming out in early 2023.
Pre-order from Waterstones (UK): www.waterstones.com/book/the-...
Pre-order from Bookshop.org (UK): uk.bookshop.org/books/the-sec...
Pre-order from Amazon (UK): www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Hart...
Pre-order (US): bit.ly/HartwoodHallUS
Pre-order (Canada): bit.ly/HartwoodHallCAN
Goodreads: / the-secrets-of-hartwoo...
General Links
My website: www.katielumsden.co.uk
Twitter: / katiejlumsden
Instragram: / katiejlumsden
Tiktok: / katiejlumsden
Facebook: / justbooksandthings
Goodreads: / katie-lumsden
NaNoWriMo: nanowrimo.org/participants/kat...
Email: katie.booksandthings@gmail.com
This will be my first read of Oliver Twist and I'm looking forward to
I've watched and listened to your thoughts on Oliver Twist. What caught my ear was about the Oliver Twist character not written like a child. I have to think about how Dickens comes up with the name Oliver Twist, especially the surname Twist. It leads me to question how Oliver can be a child in a world he has been thrown into by circumstances beyond his control. Our idea of childhood in Dickens' book is twisted by a dark criminal world and poverty. Oliver's name means peace, dignity, fruitfulness, and beauty. The joining of Oliver Twist gives a person an idea of what Dickens attempted to bring to the work. The wealthy during that time didn't see the poor. There was a class separation that, unfortunately, continues today. Dickens gave us what children cannot be when dire material conditions exist. Oliver Twist wasn't designed to be an enjoyable read, and we are supposed to find truth in the parable he wrote.
I've just discovered your channel (thank you) and looking forward to doing a few hours of work, watching many of your previous vids, a pleasurable workload I think it will be. I'm male 68 sporting a poor formative education, after I read Oliver Twist for the first time as a boy some 60 years ago there were many things I didn't cotton on to due to my age no doubt. But I loved Fagin, he was like an interesting uncle gone a little wrong, I believed he was a victim of poverty as were the rest of the characters like Nancy etc, just surviving in a cruel world with the odds stacked against them. I didn't like Bill though nor his dog, probably because many of their ilke walked the streets of my home town when I was young or should I say I perceived them so, Lol, the mix of their presence and the realism of Dickens had worked on me, Nancy's murder made me cry and I suffered from it for many years (a depression). These men in their dowdy work clothes who walked the streets to their dirty steelwork jobs, were in fact good family men, but I gave these men and their dogs a wide berth until my mid-teens. I've not read the book since then, and I'm looking forward to learning how much I have changed in my outlook and opinions towards it, I hope a lot in some respects and not in others... :)
Looking forward to joining in for this one! I am still working on my read of The Pickwick Papers but will read Oliver on audio as well. Thanks for mentioning that format!
I love how the “green bottle” at the beginning of Oliver Twist symbolically connects Oliver to “the old gentleman” (Mr. Brownlow) who is donning a “bottle-green coat”. The more I look at things that may seem trivial in Dickens’s works, the more I see how they are meticulously related, as if everything down to the minutest detail is not written by chance, but serves as a literary device that propels the story. For this reason, Charles Dickens is by far my favorite author.
I’ll be joining in Katie! I’m still reading The Pickwick Papers, I’m a slow reader, but I can read both.
Delighted to find your intro video this morning!
Thank you for the preview! I will set my expectations accordingly.🧡
I just found your readalong. I started my Dickens reading in order of publication last July and I just finished #6 Martin Chuzzlewit. I will be jumping in to your videos since it’s so much better “sharing” Dickens!
I am excited to read this book in Dec 😊 Thank you for introducing it to us!!
Looking forward to a reread of this early Dickens classic, read originally back in the 1970's. As someone once said;" Let's Twist Again!"
Hi Katie!!!!!! Although this video is a bit old, thank you for posting this. I just finished Oliver Twist and totally agree that this is also my least favorite Dickens's work (admittedly I have only read David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol but for an American that's pretty good). While I appreciate the morally grey characters and the use of dialect, the pacing on this is just so slow. For example, when there is a woman dying and wants to say something. It took an entire chapter to get to that point! It's like, "Come on! Spit it out already!" Dickens hadn't yet refined his storytelling. Even the first line of the book.....goodness me! It was a disorienting, confusing mess. Hard to believe that Dickens would later write some of THE BEST opening lines in all of history. And last but not least, I found the tone that Dickens pulled off nearly impossible. Last year, I visited the Dickens House in London, and he actually lived as a child in debtor's prison. Yet in the novel, he isn't heavy handed--he isn't jaded even though he has every right to be (or at least the tone isn't jaded). It was personal to him. Really fantastic case study in writing what you know without revealing the bitterness of the experience.
Im hoping to join in on this one, but depends on how fast I get through the other books on my TBR.
There are brilliant moments in this book which elevate it above an ordinary read.Before Oliver sets off for London the orphan child who kisses him is the angelic pledge of protection in his sojourn in the underworld.The Dodger is literally a hound of Hell who physically drags him thence in a wonderfully written scene.Fagin is one of Dickens's great villains slithering around the slimy dark Victorian London streets.If your enjoyment of the book hasn't increased after this reread "I'll eat my own head"(as Mr Grimwig would say).😁💝
I will be joining in the Oliver Twist readalong. It will be a re-read for me. I remember being appalled by the death of Nancy, but I felt equally traumatised by the demise of Bullseye, poor thing x
Just finished it. Much better than when I read it in the early 80's. Agree with a lot of your points about the characters and the difference between the adaptations and the actual novel. Reads like the work of a writer beginning to find his voice and style. Now I have to wait for January for Nickleby! Bah humbug 😂
I just finished re-reading Oliver Twist a few weeks ago, my first read was a condensed version in 8th grade!! It was a compelling read, but I also like it the least of the Dickens novels that I have read. The characterization is not as strong as his later novels. I appreciate that he was trying to draw attention to the condition of the very poor in London. Bill Sikes still seems to me to be pretty evil, his treatment of Nancy is unacceptable, but you may be right in saying that it is colored by the way he is portrayed in the movies that are so prevalent. I was surprised with the way the book concludes Dodger's plot line. This is always changed in the movie versions. I'll be interested hear your thoughts when you are finished with your re-read!!
I was quite interested to hear your thoughts on 'Oliver Twist' because it is actually one of my favourite Dickens stories and yet I've only begun reading it for the first time.
Yay! I started OT a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it so far. The only Dickens I've read is Great Expectations so I don't have much to compare it to but it's exciting to read his novels for the first time in chronological order. I expect that to be a fascinating and deeper way to enjoy his work.
I did really love pickwick but I am appreciating the novel structure of Oliver Twist so far. I'm listening to the same narration as you, and also brilliantly done. As a mum I'm finding the treatment of children so sad to listen to!