Just back from Christmas vacation; spoilers for "Oliver Twist" below

Back to work tomorrow, but for now I want to take note that I finished "Oliver Twist" during my trip. This is a classic? Sure, the writing is superb, the characters as vivid as a Kodachrome picture, and the social commentary is tart. But at some point I'm to believe that Oliver's two random benefactors in the book are 1.) an old friend of his father and 2.) his long-lost aunt. That is one coincidental bridge too far.

It was humorous, however, to find that Charles Dickens' illustrator for "Oliver Twist" was George Cruikshank which became the inspiration for Hermione Granger's cat in the "Harry Potter" books.