Fagin

Fagin is a fictional character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.

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He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities. Bill Sikes, one of the major villians of the novel, is one of Fagin's old pupils. Fagin is noted for being one of the few Jewish characters of 19th century literature, let alone any of Dickens' pieces.

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Fagin was based on real-life stereotypes; there was a recognized specialty in the 19th-century London underworld called a "kidsman": an adult who recruited children and trained them as pickpockets, exchanging shelter, food and training for the stolen goods these children brought to them. Jews were also often associated with fencing (the resale of stolen goods) due to their overrepresentation in the second-hand goods trade.

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Arguably the definitive portrayal of Fagin, among the many stage and screen adaptations of the novel, is Alec Guinness' performance in the 1948 film version directed by David Lean. Ron Moody's portrayal in the musical Oliver!, another memorable version, is recognisably influenced by Guinness' portrayal. More recently, Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley portrays Fagin in Roman Polanski's 2005 screen adaptation.

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The renowned comic book creator, Will Eisner, disturbed by the anti-semitism in the typical depiction of the character, created a graphic novel in 2003 titled Fagin the Jew. In this book, the back story of the character and events of Oliver Twist are depicted from his point of view.

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Fictional character: A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. More accurately, a fictional character is the person or conscious entity we imagine to exist within the world of such a work. In addition to people, characters can be aliens, animals, gods or, occasionally, inanimate objects. C...

Charles Dickens: Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870), pen-name “Boz”, was a cherished English novelist, whom many regard as the most important of the Victorian era. During his lifetime Dickens is viewed as a popular entertainer of fecund imagination, while later critics ch...

Oliver Twist: Oliver Twist is an 1838 novel by Charles Dickens, probably one of the best-known of all his works, along with A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations. It has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and the basis for a highly successful British musical, entitled simply Oliver!...

Fagin related Images and Photos (experimental)

Fagin and Oliver Twist