When Is a Book Not a Book? Oliver Twist in Context

The New York Public Library, Berg Collection of English and American Literature

Six months before Oliver Twist finished its serial run in Bentley's Miscellany, the publisher, Richard Bentley, brought out the completed text, with all the illustrations, as a three-volume novel. Although Dickens was known to be the author, the book was still published under the name of "Boz." At Dickens's request, a new title page, giving his real name, was substituted within a week of the publication day, November 9, 1838. George Cruikshank's frontispiece illustrates "Oliver's reception by Fagin and the boys."

Back