Oliver Twist : Whole Heart and Soul: Twayne Masterworks Studies, No 118 (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) Book Information:

n the case with Charles Dickens's writing, characters and situations from his 1837-39 novel Oliver Twist seem to have found life apart from the text: little Oliver's asking for "more," Bumble's pomposity, Fagin's treachery, and the Artful Dodger's shenanigans have become standard literary and cultural reference points. Generations of readers have found different elements to savor - from the melodramatic alternation between sentimentality and terror to the fairy-tale plot to the cast of remarkable characters. And of course there's the novel's social implications: Dickens pointedly maintained in his preface to the book's 1841 edition that Oliver Twist was important precisely because of its realistic, uncompromising account of the harshness and cruelty of life in early Victorian England.In this engaging study of Dickens's sccond book (it initially appeared as a magazine serial), Richard J. Dunn uses the author's admission that he put his "whole heart and soul" into the novel's writing to explore the connections between Dickens's own adversity - having to work under wretched conditions in a blacking factory as a boy - and the dire and often life-threatening situations the bastard child Oliver must endure before, as Dickens put it, "trimumphing at last."Taking a controversial and timely subject - England's poor laws, whose debates in Parliament he covered as a court reporter - and a child as his hero, Dickens, Dunn contends, drew together two worlds: the destitute London slums that served as a breeding ground for criminal activity and the innocent world we associate with childhood. Dunn points out that Oliver's "progress" from dark world to light shows, almost paradoxically, that these worlds are linked and will always coexist, however secure one may feel in the latter.The colorful array of characters that either help along or hinder Oliver's progress Dunn analyzes in detail, but to the book's most controversial character, the sinister yet only-all-too-human Fagin, he devotes an entire chapter. Dunn observes that Oliver, though the novel's "hero," in many ways functions as a blank sheet of paper on which the impressions of Dickens's richly drawn personalities, particularly Fagin, are cast. Such characters, Dunn notes, provide us wide the clues to the wholeness of thought to which Oliver aspires.Dunn underscores the importance of the George Cruikshank drawings that accompanied the serialized Oliver Twist, considering these visual renderings (four of which are reprodueed here) as more of a collaborative than a purely illustrative effort. And to round out this lively study, Dunn examines the myriad stage and screen adaptations of Oliver Twist, which found new life in Oliver!, the Academy Award-winning film of the 1960s.

• Book Type/Genre :

Humanities

• Book Binding :

Hardcover

• Language :

English

• Number of Pages :

Page count varies on each edition/reprint

• ISBN - 10 :

• Oliver Twist : Whole Heart and Soul: Twayne Masterworks Studies, No 118 (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) Published On :

1993

• Resource:

Higher Education Textbooks, Humanities Book is recommended for Students, Teachers, Graduates, Professionals, and all bibliophiles

Disclaimer:

• Oliver Twist : Whole Heart and Soul: Twayne Masterworks Studies, No 118 (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) Book is not for reading online or for free download in PDF or eBook format.
• Table of Contents, Index, Syllabus, summary and image of Oliver Twist : Whole Heart and Soul: Twayne Masterworks Studies, No 118 (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) book may be of a different edition or of the same title.
• The Price of this product may change due to the reprinting of the book or by the publisher. For imported books, the price may change frequently due to exchange rates.
• Oliver Twist : Whole Heart and Soul: Twayne Masterworks Studies, No 118 (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) by Richard J. Dunn Book reviews and ratings are trustworthy and the product description given above is true to the best. The product description posted here by sellers would be updated based on the Customer's feedback, if the details are not accurate.
• The customers who have bought this product can write your best reviews and suggest the product if the item's price is low which would be helpful for the buyers interested to purchase. Read Best & Top Books related to this item
• The above Bibliographic information is specific to this book which is being listed for sale. Any Colophons printed at the end of the book is owned by book author and publisher
• Special offers, deals & discounts on this product are subject to the terms and conditions owned by the website