It is a radical retelling of Oliver Twist – but, even more radically, it combines two stories in one: Rosen’s story and the Dickens classic that inspired it “twist together, unexpectedly!”
Unexpected Twist is, of course, based on the children’s book of the same name by Michael Rosen, one of the most renowned children’s authors in history. Oliver Twist will continue to be studied by school kids for eons – because British education only seems to value the works of dead White men – but for it to be enjoyed by kids, it needs a make-over – and what better way to bring it into the 21st century than by turning it into a hip-hop musical?! Whilst it was fresh at the time, countless authors and artists have told similar tales and explored similar themes. It will be read forever because it’s a good story and its themes remain relevant, but it’s so overdone. It is an interesting idea, but if it's not in Dickens's letters or writing, then I tend to think it's not right.Oliver Twist is one of those classics that is timeless but tired. I've never heard that Twist was based on one particular person. However, Thelma Grove, joint secretary of the international Dickens Fellowship, said: "I have certainly seen no evidence that Dickens based his character Oliver Twist on this boy Robert Blincoe." Had he done so, she said, there would have been some reference to the boy in his writings, most probably in his letters to his first biographer, John Forster. For Nicholas Nickleby, he travelled through Yorkshire, visiting schools." During his life, Dickens carefully studied the communities he wrote about. Sophie Slade, curator of the Dickens Museum in London, while not herself aware of Blincoe, said: "It would not be that surprising if Dickens had read about.
The revelations in Waller's book have taken Dickens scholars by surprise. But in later life he became a cotton waste dealer, financing a decent education for his children, with one son attending Cambridge University and joining the clergy. By the time he was 25 he had set up his own small cotton-spinning business, although he suffered a severe setback in 1828, when a fire destroyed his machinery and, without an income, he was put in a debtor's jail.
Like Twist, Blincoe managed to turn his life around. By 1799, he was recruited, along with dozens of children from the same workhouse, to learn the stocking-weaving trade at Lowdham Mill, 10 miles from Nottingham.
0 kommentar(er)
