Folosim cookie-uri pentru a îmbunătăți experiența pe site. Pentru detalii, citește Politica de confidențialitate.

Please, sir, can I have a walk? Dickens biographer finds likely inspiration for Oliver Twist

09.10.2026 10:00 | The Guardian World

Exclusive: Theresa Musgrove unearths newspaper archives showing one Alice Shepherd was severely punished in 1836 for similarly innocent requestCould a consumptive young woman called Alice Shepherd have been the inspiration for Oliver Twist? That is a question now being posed by a historian, who has discovered parallels between the brutality suffered by a real-life pauper incarcerated in one of Victorian London’s notorious workhouses and Charles Dickens’s fictional orphan.In researching a new book on Dickens, Theresa Musgrove unearthed 1836 newspaper reports on Alice Shepherd, who endured starvation and solitary confinement within a workhouse in Hendon, after a magistrate ruled she was to be punished for daring to ask for permission to take a walk. Continue reading...

🔗 Citește articolul complet pe The Guardian World