Oliver Twist

I have finished the first book on my list and can now stop feeling guilty about Oliver Twist. I no longer remember why I didn't read my o'level set books, but I didn't . I can only assume that I thought a working knowledge of the plot, based on the musical, would be sufficient. And even though I went on to read several of Dickens' other novels, and would include Great Expectations in my Desert Island Reads, I never got round to revisiting Oliver. So what did I think of it, after all these years? Well, I thought it was pretty good actually. The eponymous hero is bit of a drip, the casual anti-Semitism jars from a modern perspective and the coincidences are a bit of a stretch, but there are some wonderful scenes and some terrific characters. There's plenty of Dickensian squalor, lashings of Victorian sentiment and the plot is a pageturner, even though I knew what was going to happen. It also made me laugh out loud a few times - I always forget how funny Dickens is. I would have preferred a stickier end for the dastardly Noah Claypole  and it's a shame we don't find out what happens to the Artful Dodger after his  splendid court appearance ( and in my mind's eye he still looks EXACTLY like Jack Wild) but most of the characters get what they deserve. So - 1 down, 59 to go.