My Adventures With Oliver Twist
I have always loved the story of Oliver Twist.
I know that some of my readers may be scratching their heads right now, trying to figure me out. I’ve never tried to make it a secret that I don’t like reading Charles Dickens’ books.
And no, I don’t love reading Dickens. In fact, Oliver Twist is the first of his books I’ve ever made it all the way through, and that only because I felt I needed to read the actual book in order to write a faithful retelling of it.
But I do love Dickens’ stories. I love his characters. What I don’t love is when he spends 6 pages describing a room only to have the character step inside, look around, and promptly leave… never to return to said room.
I don’t know how old I was when I first saw the movie, Oliver! but I had to be pretty young. Somewhere between 5-7 years old. And I absolutely fell in love with it. Oliver Twist captured my imagination through his story, the music, the characters… and even though I never read the book, I loved Oliver Twist from that moment forward.
In my first year out of college, teaching at a tiny, private, Christian K-12 school, I was asked to be their play director. I chose Oliver Twist.
When Allison Tebo asked me if I would be interested in joining this collaboration, my first and only idea was to retell Oliver Twist and set it in Turrim, but 100 years before the start of The Orb and the Airship. The story takes place on the opposite side of the world from Grayden and his friends, in the country of Malei. The airships have not yet been invented, but the magi-tech trains feature prominently in the story. And Olifur has an enormous panther-like creature called a “malkyn” that he rides.
Of course, I knew I couldn’t retell the story based on the movies. So the first thing I did was buy a copy of the unabridged Oliver Twist and read it.
It was an interesting experience, reading a book for the first time in order to be able to retell it. Things stand out to you in unique ways when you’re constantly thinking about your own version, or what you want to do with the story than when you’re just enjoying a story for fun.
The number one thing I noticed, of course, were the differences between my beloved musical and the book. The characters in the movie come alive, they jump off the screen. Meanwhile, the characters in the book are incredibly flat, and most of them seem to be in the story specifically for the author to make a point. (And this isn’t just my bias coming through, my daughter is reading Oliver Twist in her English class right now and having to do character sketches and the notes that come with the curriculum spend a lot of time talking about the flatness of many of the characters in this book!) Many of these characters are tucked neatly into boxes labeled “good” or “evil” and left there for the entirety of the story, with no ability to be anything else. Rose could no more say an unkind word than Bill Sykes could give his mangy cur an affectionate pat.
In fact, the only truly “round” character in the whole book seems to be Nancy. She is the only one who seems to wrestle against who she is and the question of whether or not she can change.
As I was reading, I found myself more and more focusing on the singular goal of saving Nancy. Not necessarily saving her from dying (and you’ll have to read the book to find out if I changed her ending or not), but saving her from being unable to answer that question, the question of whether or not someone like her could change.
And for the sake of the movie/musical Oliver! I also knew that Dodger and Fagin needed to be redeemed. In the movie, Dodger and Fagin were always my favorite characters. It was a great disappointment to me that they are such thoroughly awful villains in the book.
So, Fagin became Fritjof. A quiet, wholesome kind of hermit who has sort of just landed in a scenario where he takes in orphaned boys and raises them in the woods, teaching them how to fend for themselves, how to work hard, a few useful skills, and above all else, the lessons of honesty, integrity, kindness, and how to follow the Builder that Fritjof himself so reveres.
Because of Fritjof’s example, Oliver himself, re-named Olifur in my world, is no longer a helpless waif-child. Instead, he gains a core of solid rock that cannot be shaken, even by betrayal, unkindness, or injustice. When he is forced to travel to the city of Melar in search of a doctor to help Fritjof (who has fallen ill), he has the wherewithall and the fortitude to venture across the miles and do what needs to be done.
Dodger became Dojhur, and will be more instantly recognizable as the city pickpocket, but instead of finding Olifur to be an easy target or someone to take under his wing, Dojhur is changed by his encounters with Olifur. Despite Olifur being younger than Dojhur, he sees in this young man traits he finds he wishes he possessed. Self-assurance, confidence, integrity, and a good work ethic see Olifur through his trials in the city of Melar, and Dojhur cannot help but notice their positive impact on his young friend.
And finally, we have Nancy, in my world named Nneka. Nneka is a ray of kindness and goodness to all she encounters. Her very presence lights up Olifur’s dark world and she gives him hope that not all is dark and dismal in this crowded place he has been forced to come to. But Nneka herself is in a situation of hopelessness and despair, one that Olifur soon discovers and is desperate to save her from…
But whether or not he does… well, that’s where you’ll have to go read the book!
Have you seen the musical Oliver!? Have you read Oliver Twist? Are you a fan of Charles Dickens’ books?
What are some things you would change about your favorite piece of classic literature, if you could write your own retelling?
Let me know in the comments! And make sure to pre-order Steal the Morrow… it releases on Friday!
I’m also planning to go live and answer questions on Friday (on FB or IG), so let me know in the comments if you have any questions you’d like to hear me answer!