Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

I am one of the first people to tell you that classics are essential to our culture, and we should definitely include the classics when we are teaching literature in public schools. However, after reading Oliver Twist I can say that this isn't a must read for everyone.
The story is the first novel written by Charles Dickens, and it follows Oliver, an orphan, as he runs away from the town he was born in to London. Once he arrives in London, Dodger takes him in and introduces him to Fagin. Fagin plans on teaching Oliver how to be a pickpocket and make him work for Fagin, but on one of the first times Oliver goes out, he is captured by the police and taken to court. Fortunately for Oliver, the man who was robbed, Mr. Brownlow, is a kindhearted man who takes pity on Oliver and takes him in.
Oliver spends a few days with Mr. Brownlow, and he then is taking books back to a bookstall owner when Fagin's gang spots him and kidnaps him. He is taken back to Fagin, and this time he cannot get away so easily. Fagin eventually sends him with Bill Sykes to pull off a house burglary, and this time Oliver is shot and left for dead. Once again, Oliver is taken in by the kind people he was trying to steal from, and he gains an education along with a family.
However, Fagin is still very upset by the fact that Oliver is no longer in his gang, and he is still trying to get Oliver back, but he is not able to. Meanwhile, the people who originally helped to raise Oliver and put him to work in his hometown are also taking advantage of their relationship with Oliver. A locket and ring that his mother gave to the lady who delivered him are sold to a pawnshop, and then they are returned to Oliver's half-brother, Monks, who wants to see Oliver as a thief because he wants to inherit all of their father's money rather than having to split it with Oliver. We soon learn that Monk is working along with Fagin, and Monks is the reason that Fagin tries so hard to keep Oliver as a pickpocket.
Of course, the story ends happily, and Oliver doesn't return to Fagin's gang, but the actions of the thieves and others in Fagin's group are horrifying. Bill Sykes actually murders Nancy, who is only trying to help Oliver without exposing the group of thieves. Fagin is portrayed as an evil man who cares about nothing but money, and Dodger is not a kind boy who takes Oliver in to help him survive.
I was actually shocked by the anti-semitic statements in the book, and I was very disappointed that Dickens had many of the Jewish characters be the villains in the book as well. I had no idea that he was so anti-semitic, and there were times that I was just angry at the way he portrayed the characters in Fagin's gang.
In the end of the story, Oliver is still living with Mr. Brownlow, and he is better off than he was in Fagin's gang. However, Fagin, Bill Sykes, and Dodger are all in prison or dead due to the crimes they committed throughout the story. I understand that they were evil, but I really did not like how evil Dickens portrayed them. The characters who were poor and less-fortunate were all portrayed as people who were willing to do whatever it took to gain money while the only characters who were genuinely good were those who came from money and upperclass families. It would have been nice to see some of the less fortunate characters have redeemable qualities as well. Dickens portrays those in poverty as people who are pure evil.
Overall, the story of Oliver is a nice story to show how there are good people in the world who will take in those less fortunate and help them, but it is not a story that I feel everyone should read. It definitely does not have the same redeeming and lovable characters that are in later stories by Dickens, and the plot isn't really super exciting. There are a lot of holes in the story, and the time skips around so much that you aren't ever really sure if the events are happening sequentially or with weeks and months in between.
I wouldn't really recommend that anyone read this book. In all reality, the musical of the story is much better and more worth your time than the novel.