Reviews tagging 'Death'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

29 reviews

pozo67's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Interesting book. Not sure about it being a puffin classic - I did read it as a kid but it was abridged. It was really funny for the first 100 pages (good to know dry British wit has a long history!) The thief's den bit was good although marred witn some weird antisemitism. It felt like a soap opera (I'm British our soaps aren't ridiculous just edgy). Then there was the aristocrat bit which was dull. Oliver himself was dull, I liked the characters like Mr Bumble, Nancy, Artful Dodger, Sikes and (although the anti semitism was jarring) Fagin cos they were interesting. I realised 2 thirds in why Oliver himself is annoying- I don't like damsels in distress and he was a male version, right down to tears and looking sad being the only way he got anything done (stand up for yourself kid!). And Nancy was like his hero! So I really liked her! First Dickens I've read since my brain fog, I'm treating that as if it's my first ever Dickens.
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lillygabriella's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I had only read an abridged children's version of this before and seen several movie adaptations, including a BBC miniseries, which upon reading the book I discovered was actually fanfiction. Only France goes hard for accuracy in their national literature I guess.  

So, if like me you have only seen movie versions, know that there was a lot of serious character rehabilitation performed in all of the movies, especially where Fagin, Nancy, and Jack Dawkins aka The Artful Dodger are concerned.

Other than that, it is pretty standard for a nineteenth century novel: Never use one word when fifty will do. Clearly the man was paid by the word. And was in this work definitely on the side of Nature over Nurture.

I'm glad I read it. It's good to know how the classics actually go.
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mpbookreviews's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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tumbly_weed's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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timmytunter's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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the_bookwormhole_'s review against another edition

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adventurous sad medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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belou's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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littleredherring's review against another edition

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dark sad tense

4.5

I was fairly bored for the first half, but then I got really into it. Quite grim, but it makes the peaceful parts all the more beautiful
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lauren_shilling's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Before I start this review, it should be noted that I had to read this for school and would not have picked this up on my own, so take my review with a grain of salt. I really enjoyed the first quarter of this book. After that, it felt a bit boring to me. It sounds odd to say it was boring, because so much was happening, but I just didn't really care about any of it. I feel as if there were too many characters to keep track of. and some of them could have been condensed into one character. I liked Oliver's character at first, I found him to be sweet and I really felt for him, but as the novel went on, I found him to be less and less realistic. The whole point was to showcase just how good Oliver Twist is in contrast to the harshness of society, but it might have been taken too far for me. Oliver just felt a bit too good to be true after a while. Other characters like Rose also made me feel that way. This is not a terrible book in my opinion, and I definitely see why it's a classic and why Dickens is such a classic author, but it also definitely wasn't for me.
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linnylionheart's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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