Oliver Twist

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Oliver Twist, Dickens’ second novel, has enthralled generations of readers since its publication in 1838. Orphaned and desolate, Oliver’s journey to London and subsequent induction into its dingy underworld, is here narrated with ceaseless energy by Jonathan Keeble. His depictions of Fagin and the terrifying Bill Sikes are particularly mesmerizing, and his reading is infused with a delicious knack for storytelling.

This unabridged version has been long anticipated, and is a stand-out Naxos AudioBooks recording.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBook

Classic Dickens. Superb narration.

Oliver Twist is quintessential Dickens: melodramatic; some memorable characters and scenes; some utterly brilliant prose passages; some utterly cloying sentimentality. Great sympathy for the oppressed. It's a great novel (though not as great as his later masterpieces). The portrait of Fagin is brilliantly done but somewhat spoiled by a strong whiff of anti-semitism. (Dickens responded to this criticism by creating a thoroughly admirable Jewish character in Our Mutual Friend, one of his last novels.) Some of the coincidences the plot relies on are pretty implausible, but that's just the genre. Jonathan Keeble, the narrator is simply perfect, both with narrating and with the various voices and accents. I simply cannot imagine how the novel could be read aloud any better.

So good

Dickens would be proud. Here's eleven more word for ya governa' and right smart ones too

A Dickens classic.

Where does Oliver Twist rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Readers familiar with Dickens' work have learned to expect a somewhat circuitous plot and a loquacious narrator. That said, Oliver Twist deserves its wide appeal among readers of Victorian novels.

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Keeble’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

A very capable narrator keeps this lengthy narrative and its abrupt shifts in plot clear for the listener. Dialogue is aptly dramatized, enhancing Dickens' character development and keeping the story lively. Despite the length of this novel, I found myself always eager to return to Keebler's performance.

AWESOME!!!

What made the experience of listening to Oliver Twist the most enjoyable?

Narrator

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mr. Grimwig, because he wanted to be right about everything, and yet, he admitted that he was not right.

Which character – as performed by Jonathan Keeble – was your favorite?

Mr. Grimwig

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I like this book because of it's juxtapostion, it had ice and warmth, it had kindness and hatefulness, it made you want to strike Mr. Bumble while at the same time shake the hands of Mr. Brownlow and Mr. Grimwig.

Any additional comments?

This book is the perfect story for someone who wants to clap an oncore one moment and reach through the screen and slap - a few people - the next. I highly recommend this Audio Book both for content and the reader who was able to bring the characters and words alive as well as anyone I could imagine.

Two Ways of Looking at Charles Dickens

I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

-Wallace Stevens
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

Whenever I try to explain my attitude vis a vis Charles Dickens that bit of Stevens occurs to me, though there are only two blackbirds in my tree.

The first can’t get enough of the way Dickens summons up at will characters that live and breathe, on the page and in the memory—even the ancillary ones like Mr. Grimwig and Mr. Giles. His storylines that keep one in agonies of suspense—leaving Oliver wounded and unconscious in a ditch for two chapters, for example—make us grateful that, unlike his first readers, we aren’t compelled to wait a month for the next installment. And his full-bodied humor, the sheer, good-natured fun he pokes at all of us, his heroes as well as his villains.

The other blackbird is more dubious. In the course of the story, Dickens makes it perfectly clear that Mr. Bumble is a pompous bully, that the parochial system is corrupt, and that Rose is a saint. The problem is, he can’t let well enough alone. In passages that usually begin with a heartfelt “Oh!” he admonishes the reader to imagine a world where Mr. Bumble wasn’t such a bully and where everyone was more like Rose, shattering the first commandment of storytelling—show, don’t tell—and, instead, doing both. But he’s so good at the first (see the powerful scene between Sikes and the itinerant peddler) that he need not have bothered with the second.

However, as a general rule, I believe it unfair to ding books for being a product of their times. Here—though Dickens was reportedly stunned when people pointed it out to him—the antisemitic portrayal of Fagin stands as exhibit A. Exhibit B: the unspeakable perfection of Rose (she diffuses peace and happiness to all around her like a free-sample lady at a perfume counter). Exhibit C: characters saying things that would sound far more believable as interior thoughts (everyone, from Rose to the blighted Nancy, become unbelievably prolix when describing their emotions). And exhibit D, those glutinous “telling” passages where, as in exhibits A through C, Dickens played to the tastes of his times even as he shaped them. Nevertheless, that second blackbird has a point.

And, now that I think of it, a third blackbird does roost in that tree after all. This one thinks that Jonathan Keeble turns in a spectacular performance, utterly faithful to the spirit of the book.

Distracting Unmatched Voices

Any additional comments?

The archaic language of Dickens demands to be read with a stiff accent and strong diction. Mr Keeble performs these two characteristics admirably. However, the character voices leave something to be desired. They shift and change throughout the book and even within the course of a single conversation. The lack of continuity can at times be distracting and leave the listener wondering who's talking. In spite of this, still an overall strong performance for Dickens fans and better than many of the other options on Audible.

Writer and narrator together weave a spell

Mr. Keeble is an amazing narrator, and of course Mr. Dickens is an eloquent writer who can bring people and scenes to life in a most vivid way. The combination of these two is magic!

Not what you remember

In keeping with the other Dickens novels, this is superbly written, but I almost skipped it, thinking the story was oh so familiar. Maybe it should have been obvious to me, but this is quite different from the popularly depicted version. It is well worth listening to.

Fantastic Narration

One of those enlightening narrative performances that can only enhance your appreciation of a true literary classic. Can't recommend this highly enough.