These are two very excellent scholarly works about Dickens which have come into my possession within the past year. Oliver Twist: A Sourcebook, of course deals with that story in particular, mostly the myriad of stage and screen versions ever since the publication of the novel. Dickens and Mass culture is on a broader topic, but contains and excellent short chapter on Oliver Twist in the popular imagination, titled "The Making of a Cultural Myth: Oliver Twist on Screen."
Unlike some other critics, (and to an extent, perhaps myself as well), John is generally uncritical of the deviations from the canoncal test found in the myriad of film versions. Since Oliver Twist exists as what she refers to as a "culture text," the events in Oliver's life do not really have a set pattern, and are therefore fluid as they are interpreted by changing times and culture in which the medium of film exist. Indeed, as she points out, people who have never read the book, think they know the story, something even more true of A Christmas Carol. I don't doubt that there are plety of those who think that Scrooge visited the Crachits on Christmas Day, even though, strictly according to canon, he didn't.Oliver is a bit more problematic though, since due to the time constraints of some versions, the rich novel must be pruned for an abreviated time slot.
John's acanonical approach to the text, however, allows room for the numerous divergent interpretations, such as Oliver asking for more gruel out of his selfless compassion for another starving boy, as in 1982's film, or as a direct protest against the system, as in the 2007 one. Approaching the story as a cultural myth, allows both versions, and others, a greater degree of legitimatecy. In a mythic sense, Oliver's request may be seen as a protest and/or a demand by all impoverished children, both within the era when Dickens wrote, and beyond.
Again appraoching Oliver's story as mythic and fluid, John is accepting, and even appreciative ,of the diverse interpretations of Fagin that have shown up over the years, especially it seems, of the less conventional ones such as Timothy Spall's take on the character.
She also points out that one of the earlier silent versions set the stage for subsequent versions, as to what scenes from the book were kept in and left out. Among the scenes that have become a staple for most adapters are Oliver's asking for more gruel (of course!), Oliver's meeting with the Artful Dodger, Oliver's introduction to Fagin's lair, and Dodger and Charlie picking Mr. Brownlow's pocket with Oliver getting blamed. With Oliver having become a cultural myth, those scenes are the ones most impressed upon the collective concsiousness. Similarly, that early version's ommissions were also copied, and John lists several canonical indicents/characters that seldom show up on screen. "It is very rare," she tells us, "to encounter little Dick on screen, or see Fagin and Monks appearing at the window at Maylies, or Oliver reading the Newgate calendar, or the trial of Fagin, though these scenes do appear on occasion."
Dick, Oliver's starving workhouse friend, does appear in the 1982's version (Goldman's script gives him the vital role of the boy for whom Oliver asks for more gruel), as does the scene where Monks and Fagin peer in the window at Oliver. Fagin's trial appears appears in the 2007 version, and (surprisingly), in the Filmation cartoon; perhaps some space should have been giving to the cartoons, for are they not, too, part of culture? Fred Guida does consider the various animated Carols, along with the rest. I can't recall a version offhand that has Oliver reading the newgate calender.
John does mention, however, that 1982's Oliver is the only version she's aware of that makes mention of the 'New Poor Laws,' what Dickens wrote the novel to protest against. That occurs in the scene where Bumble thunders at Oliver about the infallibility of the system, though it occured to me that this refence might be cinematically unique.
Though I haven't seen quite all of them (the 1962 version still escapes me, and likely will for some time), one scene I'm fairly certain has never been filmed even in BBC's meticulous production in 1985 (which even included Gamfield, the chimney sweep), is the incident with the raving hunchback in chapter 32. This is probably because the incident makes no sense in the context of the plot, and would be an even more obvious loose end if presented onscreen.
The final chapter in John's Mass Culture examines "Dickens World," an amusement-park like attraction in Britain, in which visitors can see and interact with live actors portraying the characters from Dickens' novels:Fagin, Scrooge, Miss Havishham, et. al. There are verying opinions as to whether such an attaction is good or bad by Dickens buffs; on one hand it preserves the legacy of Dickens' stories and and characters, and (perhaps) introducies them to new generations. On the other, it s seems to cheapen Dickens' legacy by turning them into fodder for the masses. If, however, Dickens' works exist as "culture texts," the public imagination is the medium in which they continue to persist. There is, indeed, a tendacy to devalue mass popularity and consumption as cheapness. That is, in fact, often not the case, as Dickens most popular works are arguably also his best, a case that I beleive Juliet John makes well in these texts.
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