has escaped from
their clutches. Now I would rather not say whether I consider it quite
likely that a boy of this birth and nurture would fly at a boy much
bigger than himself in vindication of the fair fame of a mother whom
he had never known, or would freely risk his life to warn a sleeping
household that they were being robbed, or would, on all occasions,
exhibit the most excellent manners and morals, and a delicacy of
feeling that is quite dainty. But this is the essence of the book. To
show purity and goodness of disposition as self-sufficient in
themselves to resist all adverse influences, is Dickens' main object.
Take Oliver's sweet uncontaminated character away, and the story
crumbles to pieces. With mere improbabilities of plot, I have no
quarrel. Of course it is not likely that the boy, on the occasion of
his first escape from the thieves, should be rescued by his father's
oldest friend, and, on the second occasion, come across his aunt. But
such coincidences must be accepted in any story; they violate no truth
of character. I am afraid I can't say as much of Master Oliver's
graces and virtues.

With this reservation, however, how much there is in the book to which
unstinted admiration can be given! As "Pickwick" first fully exhibited
the humorous side of Dickens' genius, so "Oliver Twist" first fully
exhibited its tragic side;--the pathetic side was to come somewhat
later. The scenes at the workhouse; at the thieves' dens in London;
the burglary; the murder of poor Nancy; the escape and death of the
horror-haunted Sikes,--all are painted with a master's hand. And the
book, like its predecessor, and like those that were to follow,
contains characters that have passed into common knowledge as
types,--characters of the keenest individuality, and that yet seem in
themselves to sum up a whole class. Such are Bill Sikes, whose
ruffianism has an almost epic grandeur; and black-hearted Fagin, the
Jew, receiver of stolen goods and trainer of youth in the way they
should _not_ go; and Master Dawkins, the Artful Dodger. Such, too, is
Mr. Bumble, greatest and most unhappy of beadles.

Comedy had predominated in "Pickwick," tragedy in "Oliver Twist." The
more complete fusion of the two was effected in "Nicholas Nickleby."
But as the mighty actor Garrick, in the well-known picture by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, is drawn towards the more mirthful of the two
sisters, so, here again, I think that comedy decidedly bears away the
p