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In the article the author lists Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens as being considered a Newgate Novel which I myself don't necessarily agree with but there is no mention made that Dickens himself strongly disagreed saying that he didn't feel nor write his novel with the intention of being considered a Newgate Novel. Matter of fact in his 1841 preface he states that his writing of Fagin's gang was intended "to show them as they really are, forever skulking uneasily through the dirtiest paths of life, with the great, black, ghastly gallows closing up their prospects, turn them where they may."
And Jill Muller in her 2003 Introduction to Oliver Twist discusses how Dickens compared Oliver Twists relationship with the Newgate novels as being the same as Don Quixote's relationship to the chilvaric romance. How they both seeked to mock and imitate the novels that they appear to be like.
Jill also goes on to point out how the full titles of the book, The Adventures of Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy's Progress both point towards "deeper moral and spiritual issues than are found in the popular crime stories and mysteries of his time." Also in the 1841 preface Jill points out that Dickens cites Hogarth "the moralist and censor of his age" as the source for his attempt to show crime in all its horribleness. Further references to and parallels between the novelists stories exist as characters in Dickens novel achieve or end up in similar fates.
I believe that a side-note if you will should be added laying out at least Dickens objections to his novel being listed along with other Newgate novels since he was so against this characterization of his novel.
Introduction references copyright by Muller, Jill in a 2003 reprint by Barnes & Noble Classics, ISBN-13:978-4-59308-030-3. Oliver Twist copyright Dickens, Charles from 1841 & 1867 text.
--Cinnaraisnbagel (talk) 20:29, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
