Villains, sleazy misery, a helpless, downtrodden orphan. Dickens' novel has inspired dozens of film and television adaptations. Once upon a time, the stark portrait of the Jewish villain Fagin stirred up emotions. Today, Roman Polanski is disturbed by the hope that goodness in man can triumph over injustice. Dickens' "Oliver Twist" lives on because it shapes an existential tension: the individual against society. With the work essay from the Neues Kindlers Literatur Lexikon. With data on life and work, written exclusively by the editors of the journal for literature Text+Kritik.
