You can tell this book was published a chapter or two at a time in serial form. The plot meanders around and characters appear and disappear for no apparent reason. Oliver himself is offstage for long portions of the book. Fagin is referred to as "the Jew" for the first part of the book and then Dickens seemed to realize it was offensive and for the rest he was just Fagin. In other words, a good editor could have focused the story and made it better. Among the meanderings there are some intriguing characters, and the language paints vivid word pictures throughout, and that helps redeem the flaws.