Oliver Twist - Book the First, Chapter the First

Hello again!

Before I start, I thought I would talk about my expectations of this book. Which, to be honest, are not much. I don't know what it's about (apart from the fact that it's about an orphan, Oliver Twist) and in fact the blurb told me a lot I didn't know:

"The story of the orphan, Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse, only to be taken in by a den of thieves..."

 So it has thieves in it! I am intrigued.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm reading the Penguin Classics version of Oliver Twist, edited by Philip Horne.

This is it.

It looks a bit dog-eared, but it's unread, so it'll probably look a lot worse by the time I've finished.

Now, let's begin!

Treats of the place where Oliver Twist was born, and of the circumstances attending his birth

Okay, first of all, are chapter titles even allowed to be that long? I went through the list of chapters (Appendix D) and discovered that they mostly are, in fact, very long. The longest one in A Tale of Two Cities was 'Monsieur the Marquis in the Country', but in Oliver Twist I find 'Reverts to the Merry Old Gentleman and his Youthful Friends, through whom a new Acquaintance is introduced to the intelligent Reader, and connected with whom various pleasant Matters are related appertaining to this History'.

Me after reading that

So, the book contains a Merry Old Gentleman! This just keeps getting better.

This chapter is very short - not even three pages - and all that really happens is that Oliver is born. He's born in a workhouse, and attended to by an nurse and a surgeon. And I think this nurse is my new favourite character.

"'Lor bless her dear heart, no!' interposed the nurse, hastily depositing in her pocket a green glass bottle, the contents of which she had been tasting in a corner with evident satisfaction."

This is great, guys. She is also described as being "rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer". Apparently Dickens's greatest strength is in his characterisation, and already I've been sucked into his world. I do hope we see this nurse again.

Oliver's mother dies, which is sad, but I assume that the fact that he's an orphan is rather a vital plot point, and  I don't feel any loss since I've had no time to get attached to the character. She does seem to kind of give up and just die, as well.

So now I'll assume that Oliver is brought up in the workhouse? Maybe by drunken nurse? I really hope so.

Introduction

Welcome!

So, I realise that this is not an original idea AT ALL, but I discovered that while reading A Tale of Two Cities I was able to understand it a lot better when I broke it up into chapters instead of reading it all in one big rush. So I've decided to continue this idea in blog form.

A Tale of Two Cities and I

I haven't really thought out what books to read, but I like the idea of reading classic books, and Oliver Twist is next on my list (that rhymes!) to continue the Dickens theme. Any book suggestions are welcome.

I'll put up my first review post, of chapter 1 of Oliver Twist, now. 

Liam.