Oliver Twist (version 3): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Oliver Twist (version 3), credited to Charles Dickens, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Oliver Twist (version 3) by Charles Dickens. Read in English by Peter John Keeble Oliver Twist was published in 1838 as a three volume book. The novel was the first of Dickens' works to realistically portray the degradation and impoverishment of the London underworld and its denizens. Dickens utilises the environment and characters to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime. The plot of this novel centres around and follows the journey of the parish boy "Oliver Twist." Oliver has been in the parish orphanage all his short life, a place overcrowded and constantly short of food. When Oliver has the temerity to ask for more after the evening meal of gruel he astonishes and horrifies the parish board and the parish beadle. They promptly sell him on to the local undertaker for the princely sum of 5 pounds. Oliver runs away and thus the journey begins! Oliver is drawn unwittingly into the London criminal underworld by a superbly characterised pickpocket; one known as 'The Artful Dodger' a streetwise, flamboyant boy who is a master at his craft. He is introduced to the unscrupulous Jew named 'Fagin' who controls the complete gang of pickpockets and ruffians. Oliver is uncomfortable in this den of iniquity and absconds, he is sheltered by a man who spots something about Oliver's demeanour and features which lead him to investigate his parentage. Before long Oliver is retaken by the bullying, insensitive criminal housebreaker 'Bill Sykes' and once more finds himself caught in Fagin's coils. As the plot unwinds we meet many finely drawn good and bad characters, and the vivid descriptions of the seamier side of London in that period are superlative. - Summary by Peter Keeble

Recording facts

• Recording title: Oliver Twist (version 3)
• Author credits: Charles Dickens
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 53
• Listed recording duration: 15:49:09

Opening tracks: first 24 of 53

1. 01 - TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH — 7:00
2. 02 - TREATS OF OLIVER TWIST'S GROWTH, EDUCATION, AND BOARD — 23:16
3. 03 - RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE — 18:45
4. 04 - OLIVER, BEING OFFERED ANOTHER PLACE, MAKES HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE — 15:46
5. 05 - OLIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE FORMS AN UNFAVOURABLE NOTION OF HIS MASTER'S BUSINESS — 23:08
6. 06 - OLIVER, BEING GOADED BY THE TAUNTS OF NOAH, ROUSES INTO ACTION, AND RATHER ASTONISHES HIM — 10:30
7. 07 - OLIVER CONTINUES REFRACTORY — 11:10
8. 08 - OLIVER WALKS TO LONDON. HE ENCOUNTERS ON THE ROAD A STRANGE SORT OF YOUNG GENTLEMAN — 18:55
9. 09 - CONTAINING FURTHER PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE PLEASANT OLD GENTLEMAN, AND HIS HOPEFUL PUPILS — 13:17
10. 10 - OLIVER BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH THE CHARACTERS OF HIS NEW ASSOCIATES; AND PURCHASES EXPERIENCE AT A HIGH PRICE. BEING A SHORT, BUT VERY IMPORTANT CHAPTER, IN THIS HISTORY — 11:08
11. 11 - TREATS OF MR. FANG THE POLICE MAGISTRATE; AND FURNISHES A SLIGHT SPECIMEN OF HIS MODE OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE — 15:08
12. 12 - IN WHICH OLIVER IS TAKEN BETTER CARE OF THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE. AND IN WHICH THE NARRATIVE REVERTS TO THE MERRY OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS YOUTHFUL FRIENDS. — 20:13
13. 13 - SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES ARE INTRODUCED TO THE INTELLIGENT READER, CONNECTED WITH WHOM VARIOUS PLEASANT MATTERS ARE RELATED, APPERTAINING TO THIS HISTORY — 16:46
14. 14 - COMPRISING FURTHER PARTICULARS OF OLIVER'S STAY AT MR. BROWNLOW'S, WITH THE REMARKABLE PREDICTION WHICH ONE MR. GRIMWIG UTTERED CONCERNING HIM, WHEN HE WENT OUT ON AN ERRAND — 21:52
15. 15 - SHOWING HOW VERY FOND OF OLIVER TWIST, THE MERRY OLD JEW AND MISS NANCY WERE — 14:15
16. 16 - RELATES WHAT BECAME OF OLIVER TWIST, AFTER HE HAD BEEN CLAIMED BY NANCY — 20:39
17. 17 - OLIVER'S DESTINY CONTINUING UNPROPITIOUS, BRINGS A GREAT MAN TO LONDON TO INJURE HIS REPUTATION — 20:02
18. 18 - HOW OLIVER PASSED HIS TIME IN THE IMPROVING SOCIETY OF HIS REPUTABLE FRIENDS — 18:36
19. 19 - IN WHICH A NOTABLE PLAN IS DISCUSSED AND DETERMINED ON — 20:17
20. 20 - WHEREIN OLIVER IS DELIVERED OVER TO MR. WILLIAM SIKES — 18:34
21. 21 - THE EXPEDITION — 13:44
22. 22 - THE BURGLARY — 17:56
23. 23 - WHICH CONTAINS THE SUBSTANCE OF A PLEASANT CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR. BUMBLE AND A LADY; AND SHOWS THAT EVEN A BEADLE MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE ON SOME POINTS — 16:41
24. 24 - TREATS ON A VERY POOR SUBJECT. BUT IS A SHORT ONE, AND MAY BE FOUND OF IMPORTANCE IN THIS HISTORY — 11:57

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