55 Fun Facts About Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist was which of Charles Dickens's novels?

His second: Dickens began Oliver Twist while The Pickwick Papers was still coming out in monthly parts, so for months he was writing both at once.

What was the alternative title of Dickens's novel Oliver Twist?

The Parish Boy's Progress: as a parish orphan, Oliver is raised by Mrs Mann, who pockets most of the allowance meant to feed the children.

In which magazine was Oliver Twist serialised in monthly instalments?

Bentley's Miscellany was edited by Dickens himself when Oliver Twist began there, until he quarrelled with its owner Richard Bentley and resigned.

Which artist provided one steel etching for each monthly instalment of Oliver Twist?

George Cruikshank later claimed in The Times that he had come up with the story, a claim Dickens's biographer John Forster dismissed as a 'silly story'.

Under what pseudonym was Oliver Twist first published?

Boz, Dickens said, came from his nickname for his little brother Augustus, 'Moses', which said through the nose became 'Boses', then 'Boz'.

What punishment does the workhouse board give Oliver Twist after the uproar at supper?

Solitary confinement and flogging: he is locked in a dark room for a week, and the board offers five pounds to anyone who will take him off their hands.

What does Oliver famously ask the workhouse master for?

More gruel: the starving boys cast lots over who should walk up after supper and ask for more, and the lot fell to Oliver.

Which pompous beadle names Oliver Twist and later marries the workhouse matron, Mrs Corney?

Mr Bumble loses his post once his wife's secret dealings come out, and the couple end up as paupers in the very workhouse they once ran.

To what trade is Oliver apprenticed after leaving the workhouse?

Undertaking: Mr Sowerberry decides the boy's melancholy face will make him a perfect mute, a hired mourner at children's funerals.

When Nancy goes hunting for Oliver at the police office, who does she pretend to be?

His sister: she rehearses weeping for her 'sweet, innocent little brother' while Fagin's gang cheer, then plays the part at the police office.

What is the real name of the Artful Dodger?

Jack Dawkins swaggers through his court hearing, demanding his rights as an Englishman, and is committed for trial, presumably facing transportation to Australia.

What does Fagin train orphan boys to be?

Pickpockets: his name even entered dictionaries as 'fagin', meaning a person who teaches crime to others.

Whose handkerchief is stolen in the theft that gets Oliver arrested?

Mr Brownlow's kindness wins out: he takes the accused boy home and is struck by how closely Oliver resembles a portrait on his wall.

Before which police magistrate is Oliver Twist hauled after being wrongly accused of theft?

Mr Fang has just sentenced Oliver to three months' hard labour when the bookstall keeper bursts in and swears another boy did it.

Dickens named Fagin after a boy who was very good to him when, aged 12, he worked in what?

A blacking warehouse: with his father in a debtors' prison, Charles pasted labels on pots of boot blacking, and Bob Fagin looked after him when he fell ill.

What is the name of Bill Sikes's dog in Oliver Twist?

Bull's-eye: fearing any description of him will mention the dog, Sikes tries to drown it, but the dog slips away.

What goes wrong during the burglary Fagin forces Oliver to join?

He is shot and wounded by the servants, and the burglars leave him in a ditch; he staggers back and is taken in by the family he came to rob.

Which mysterious man plots with Fagin to keep Oliver from learning his parentage?

Monks turns out to be Oliver's half-brother, scheming to steal his inheritance; he squanders his share in the New World and dies in prison.

Which belongings of Oliver's mother are dropped into a river to hide who he is?

A ring and a medallion: the pauper nurse who attended Oliver's dying mother stole them, and the workhouse matron later sold them on.

To whom does Nancy secretly pass information to help Oliver?

Rose Maylie begs Nancy to leave the thieves, insisting it is never too late to atone, but Nancy refuses to abandon the man she loves.

Who follows Nancy on Fagin's orders and reports her secret meetings?

Noah Claypole, now calling himself Morris Bolter, spies on Nancy for Fagin, who twists the report so Sikes believes she betrayed him.

How does Bill Sikes die in Dickens's novel Oliver Twist?

Accidentally hanged by his own rope: fleeing over the rooftops, Sikes screams 'The eyes again!', loses his balance, and the noose tightens as he falls.

The young woman living in the house Sikes tries to burgle turns out to be what relation to Oliver?

His maternal aunt: orphaned as a small child, she was raised by cottagers and slandered as illegitimate until a kindly elderly lady took her in.

Where do Oliver and his protector visit Fagin the day before his execution?

Newgate Prison: in the condemned cell, the raving Fagin still reveals the chimney hiding place of the papers that prove Oliver's identity.

Appalled by Sikes's crime, how does Fagin's boy Charley Bates end up in Oliver Twist?

He becomes a farmer: after struggling as a farmer's drudge and a carrier's lad, he ends up the merriest young grazier in all Northamptonshire.

Which harsh 1834 legislation is Oliver Twist's chief political target?

Under the new Poor Laws, workhouses were meant to be harsh enough to deter all but the desperate, and Dickens mocks the thin diets they served.

Which real orphan's account of child labour in a cotton mill may have inspired Oliver Twist?

Robert Blincoe, an orphan in the St Pancras workhouse, was one of about 80 children it sent north at seven to work as 'apprentices'.

What object is Fagin holding when he first appears in Oliver Twist?

A toasting fork: he is frying sausages over the fire when the Artful Dodger brings Oliver into the den for the first time.

Where does Nancy promise to walk every Sunday night, in case Oliver's protectors want to talk to her?

London Bridge: when she keeps a midnight meeting on its steps, a spy sent by Fagin is hiding nearby and hears every word.

What small stolen item finally gets the Artful Dodger arrested?

A silver snuff box: Charley Bates is mortified that the gang's cleverest thief should be transported over such a common trifle.

Who plays the grown-up Dodger, now a surgeon in 1850s Australia, in the 2023 series The Artful Dodger?

Thomas Brodie-Sangster's Dodger has built a respectable life 15 years on, until his old mentor Fagin, played by David Thewlis, turns up in the colony.

Who played Fagin in David Lean's 1948 film?

Alec Guinness was just 34 when he played Fagin under a straggly wig and heavy prosthetics, and the portrayal got the film banned in Israel.

Which teenage actor played the Artful Dodger in David Lean's 1948 film, long before his pop fame?

Anthony Newley later wrote the songs for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Leslie Bricusse, including 'Pure Imagination'.

Who played Bill Sikes in David Lean's 1948 film Oliver Twist?

Robert Newton went on to play the one-legged pirate in Disney's Treasure Island, and his growling 'Arrr!' is credited with shaping how screen pirates talk.

Who wrote the book, music and lyrics of the stage musical Oliver!?

Lionel Bart later sold his rights to Oliver! to raise money for other shows, and reckoned the deal cost him over £1 million.

On 9 February 1964, Broadway's Oliver! cast played Ed Sullivan's show, the night of which debut?

The Beatles' first US TV appearance came that same night, and the cast's young Dodger watched them from the wings and wanted 'a piece of that'.

Which future Monkee played the Artful Dodger in the first Broadway cast of Oliver!?

Davy Jones was an apprentice jockey when his trainer, Basil Foster, encouraged him to try out for the Artful Dodger.

Which boy starred as Oliver in the 1968 film Oliver!?

Mark Lester later left acting behind and retrained as an osteopath, treating bad backs and sports injuries.

Which Oscar did the 1968 film Oliver! win at the 41st Academy Awards?

Best Picture: the ceremony even opened with the film's Fagin and Artful Dodger in costume, joking that they might have to steal an Oscar.

Who played Fagin in the 1968 film Oliver!, having created the role on stage?

Ron Moody later said his biggest regret was turning down the chance to play the Doctor in Doctor Who.

Which teenage actor was Oscar-nominated for playing the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver!?

Jack Wild was spotted playing football by June Collins, Phil Collins's mother.

Who played the brutal Bill Sikes in the 1968 film Oliver!?

Oliver Reed's Sikes never sings: the film dropped the character's stage number, 'My Name!'.

In Disney's 1988 animated film Oliver & Company, what kind of animal is Oliver?

A kitten: the orphan is taken in by a gang of thieving New York dogs, until a rich girl adopts him.

Who played Fagin in Roman Polanski's 2005 film?

Ben Kingsley played Fagin for Roman Polanski, who said he made the film for his own children.

Which graphic novelist reimagined the character sympathetically in Fagin the Jew (2003)?

Will Eisner frames it as Fagin's plea to Dickens himself on the eve of his execution, begging for a more understanding portrait.

In Oliver Twist's first magazine instalments, Oliver's birthplace shares its name with which comic Dickens series?

The Mudfog Papers: the serial named Oliver's birthplace Mudfog, but Dickens took the name out when the story came out as a book.

After running away, how does Oliver Twist make his way to the capital?

On foot: a milestone tells him the city is seventy miles away, and by the time he nears it he is so weak he can barely go on.

What is Fagin's constant, insincere form of address to the boys in his gang?

'My dear' sweetens even his threats: he tells Oliver about a boy who tried to go to the police and ended up on the gallows.

When Oliver catches Fagin gloating over a box of watches and jewels, what does Fagin claim they are?

His savings for old age: 'my little property', he calls them, adding that folks call him a miser, though the box is full of stolen goods.

What happens to Bill Sikes's dog at the end of Oliver Twist?

He dies right after his master: leaping from the rooftop toward Sikes's body, the dog misses and is killed in the fall.

What does the gruff Mr Grimwig keep offering to eat if he turns out to be wrong?

His own head: he bets it that Oliver will never come back from an errand with books and money, and Oliver doesn't, because he is snatched off the street.

Who played Fagin in Twist (2021), a modern-day version with Rita Ora as the Dodger?

Michael Caine's Fagin runs a modern street gang, and his new recruit, reimagined as a gifted graffiti artist, is drawn into an art theft that goes wrong.

Which future Pirates of the Caribbean star appeared in ITV's 1999 Oliver Twist alongside Andy Serkis?

Keira Knightley made it the same year she played Queen Amidala's decoy in Star Wars: Episode I, cast for her likeness to Natalie Portman.

Who played Nancy in David Lean's 1948 Oliver Twist while married to the director?

Kay Walsh also devised the film's wordless opening, in which Oliver's pregnant mother struggles through a storm to the workhouse.

Which Tony Award did Lionel Bart win for Oliver! in 1963?

The musical was brought to Broadway by producer David Merrick.