Oliver Twist The alternative title, "The Parish Boy's Progress", alludes to Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", as well as the 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, "A Rake's Progress" and "A Harlot's Progress". In this early example of the social novel, Dickens satirises the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's own youthful experiences
Dickens Fellowship Fellowship, B.W. Matz (1865-1925). "The Dickensian" publishes articles of literary criticism from scholars around the world. It also carries reviews of books, plays, films and TV productions, together with reports of Fellowship activities and other Dickens-related news. The current editor is Professor Malcolm Andrews of the University of Kent. In 2002 the Fellowship campaigned to save an area of Kent marshland on the Hoo Peninsula which provided the setting to the opening chapter of Dickens's novel "Great Expectations" where the young Pip first encountered the escaped convict Magwitch. Dickens Fellowship The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902, and is an