Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Oliver Twist

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

12 reviews

justash2000's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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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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chimwemwe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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chriswoody94's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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dwager's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book is early Dickens, and wanders a bit in terms of the story line. It is a dark and melodramatic look at the underworld of Victorian England, much darker than any adaptation I've seen. The characters are archetypes of criminals, innocent child, benevolent grandfather, etc.

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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dannilmp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

For my first venture into reading Dickens as an adult, I was not disappointed. Actually I am glad I have very vague or no memories of the various film adaptations (aside from Oliver and Company) so that I could read this novel with fresh eyes to the story.

Firstly, I expected to struggle with understanding the type of language used and the way sentences are strung together in classic literature but I was pleasantly suprised when I found I was flying through the pages, only having to go back and re-read passages a few times. The addition of footnotes at the end of the book was very helpful as well. I enjoyed watching Oliver grow throughout his trials and tribulations and the occasional illustrated scene in this edition was a lovely touch. I felt the way each character's story wrapped up was the highlight of this book for me and certainly the ending has stuck with me.

On the other hand, this edition had a section for noting changes between various editions of the novel as it was released but it was not easy to notice this while I was reading, it was something I stumbled across as I was looking for footnotes for other explanations. Additionally, it was quite a chore to keep having to flick to the back of the book every time a footnote appeared, I do prefer footnotes written at the bottom of pages but I feel this was a small price to pay for easier understanding of the novel's concepts.

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