OLIVER TWIST（ISBN=9780679417248）

　　From Library Journal
　　Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle. Clearly, a reading of this work must carry the author's passionate narrative voice while being flexible and broad enough to define the wide range of character voices suggested by the text. John Wells's capable but bland reading only suggests the rich possibilities of the material. Restraint and Dickens simply don't go together. The abridgment deftly and seamlessly manages to deliver all major characters and plot lines, but there are many superior audiobook versions of this material, both abridged and unabridged. Not recommended.
-John Owen, Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

　　From AudioFile
　　This abridged version of the trials of Oliver Twist makes the tale quite accessible to young listeners. Dick Cavett does an excellent job of moving from his familiar, level voice in the narrative passages to the true vibrancy of the dialogue. He handles British accents of the more lowly characters quite well, his characterization of Fagin being especially insidious and distinct. Mr. Brownlow and Monks are less developed, and their characterizations rely more on the text. The abridgment is quite a feat, having reduced a tumultuous tale into a tight storyline. However, some of the final sequences require more careful listening to absorb plot developments. E.S.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

　　(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) One of the most swiftly moving and unified of Charles Dickens's great novels, "Oliver Twist" is also famous for its re-creation-through the splendidly realized figures of Fagin, Nancy, the Artful Dodger, and the evil Bill Sikes-of the vast London underworld of pickpockets, thieves, prostitutes, and abandoned children. Victorian critics took Dickens to task for rendering this world in such a compelling, believable way, but readers over the last 150 years have delivered an alternative judgment by making this story of the orphaned Oliver Twist one of its author's most loved works. This edition reprints the original Everyman's introduction by G. K. Chesterton and includes twenty-four illustrations by George Cruikshank.

　　Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Perhaps the greatest novelist of the Victorian period, Dickens grew up in a large family frequently beset by financial insecurity. At age 12 he was forced to leave school and work in a factory when his father was thrown into debtors prison (as a writer Dickens would glean much from these early experiences). After he finished school, he worked as a court stenographer and as a reporter for London newspapers. He started writing fiction in 1833, first selling short stories and essays to periodicals and eventually publishing more than fifteen novels. He died on June 9, 1879, a day after suffering a stroke at Gadshill, his home near Kent, England. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

　　"Patrick Benson's cross-hatched illustrations seem to have been lovingly guided by the hand of Ernest Shepard, whose 1931 drawings of The Wind in the Willows continue to transport young readers to meadow, riverbank, and wildwood." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer

　　"The illustrations by Patrick Benson are excellent." --The Spectator