Oliver Twist

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Simon Vance

One of Charles Dickens' most popular novels, Oliver Twist is the story of a young orphan who dares to say, "Please, sir, I want some more". After escaping from the dark and dismal workhouse where he was born, Oliver finds himself on the mean streets of Victorian-era London and is unwittingly recruited into a scabrous gang of scheming urchins. In this band of petty thieves, Oliver encounters the extraordinary and vibrant characters who have captured audiences' imaginations for more than 150 years: the loathsome Fagin, the beautiful and tragic Nancy, the crafty Artful Dodger, and the terrifying Bill Sikes, perhaps one of the greatest villains of all time.

Rife with Dickens' disturbing descriptions of street life, the novel is buoyed by the purity of the orphan Oliver. Though he is treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, his pious innocence leads him at last to salvation - and the shocking discovery of his true identity.

Public Domain (P)2008 Tantor

Shows why Dickens is MASTER of the social novel

It is hard to exit the original worlds created by Dickens. I usually manage it crying like a baby. Oliver Twist is top shelf storytelling. The characters are amazing. The setting is perfect. The plot manages to throw out hundreds of threads and ties them all together at the end, while never losing or boring the reader.

Weakness? This is probably nit picking, but the story seems to work out too well in the end. Don't get me wrong, I know this is a social novel and FICTION, but I guess I just have a little bit of an issue with the whole melodramatic end, with every shoe finding a foot and every evil getting a noose. Other than that, Dickens shows with 'Oliver Twist' why is/was the master and the giant of the social novel.

Simon Vance, as always, delivers a solid narration.

a good recording of a good story

I am an avid Dickens fan and enjoyed this recording.

A near perfect association

The narration of the incomparable Simon Vance of a work by the matchless Charles Dickens is an arrangement made as if by both, in concert, yet across a span of more than a century and a half. It is pure, transcendent magic.

Classic Dickens

A masterful performance truly engaging the listener as much or even more than a video performance!

Great book

Super narrator. Best book of all time? No. Excellent book? Yes. Charles dickens, well read.

Just Wonderful

A delightful story, marred only by another example of Dickens unfortunate antisemitism. The narration is superb.

a surprising book with more than one "Twist"

I liked all the different Brittish accents that the author was able to perform. the story took a while to get into, but pays off at the end

Good starting point for getting into Dickens

Any additional comments?

I wanted to listen to a Dickens book other than the familiar Christmas Carol. There are lots of opinions out there on which is his best book but Oliver Twist seemed to garnish a lot of praise as a good starting point for first time Dickens readers and it didn't require a huge time investment of some of the other Dickens books. After listening, I would have to agree this is a good one.

While I had heard about it, I didn't really know it other than the famous line "...please sir, I want some more." I found the writing to be very engaging. I can see why this one is a classic. My only complaint is that I thought the story was a little disjointed in some parts not to mention the silly references to Master Bates. This line chapter 18 had me cracking up "...Master Bates caught up an end of his neckerchief; and, holding it erect in the air, dropped his head on his shoulder, and jerked ..." Seriously? :-) Maybe Dickens was pushing the envelope for double entendres. Anyway, the ending pulled everything together really well.

The absolute high point was the narrator, Simon Vance. He did a masterful job at the voices. I thought it similar to Jim Dale's performance in the Harry Potter books. I'll be looking for more books narrated by Simon Vance and certainly more Dickens as well.

great audio but...

it was the story that I found distasteful, the narrator was clear and well spoken, but the story thou classical and well written I found it distressing, dark, and painful to listen to, but it was for ENG 2220, so no choice about the book, just the format.

Dickens wrote much better books, but it's good

Like much 19th century literature, the plot requires too many coincidences. London and its environs had a pretty big population even then. But lo and behold, Mr. Brownlow just happens to know the father of Oliver's half brother, and Oliver's aunt just happens to be living with a woman whose house Sikes sends Oliver to break into. So, sure, the social depiction is valuable, but such unlikely coincidences detract from the story. Nevertheless, it is a very worthy book. A lot has been written about Fagin and his being called "the Jew", when that is not relevant to the story at all. Charles Dickens definitely did not need to do that, and he is reflecting a sad state of the social attitudes among even those who should know better. So, on one hand he consciously shows the societal ills of poverty, treatment of children, etc., but on the other hand he unconsciously shows the societal ills of prejudice. Sure, there were Jewish crooks in London, but being a criminal does not seem to be particular to any ethnic, racial, or religious group, so unless there is some redeeming reason to point out a person's race, ethnicity, or religion (or sexual identity, for that matter), such as happens in To Kill a Mockingbird, why do it if not for prejudice?