Vintage Youth Prepack (Oliver Twist + Trainspotting) - Softcover

Dickens, Charles; Welsh, Irvine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099511339 ISBN 13: 9780099511335

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 2007

Synopsis

"Vintage Youth" is a limited edition gift pack which consists of beautifully designed separate volumes of "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens and Irvine Welsh's controversial bestseller "Trainspotting." "Vintage Youth" is just one of ten "Vintage Classic Twins" to collect. Each twin consists of two books: a specially designed limited edition of one modern classic title and one established classic work. The books in each pair have been carefully selected to provide a thought-provoking combination. "Oliver Twist": Oliver is an orphan living on the dangerous London streets with no one but himself to rely on. Fleeing from poverty and hardship, he falls in with a criminal street gang who will not let him go. Dickens graphically conjures up the capital's underworld, full of prostitutes, thieves and lost and homeless children, and gives a voice to the disadvantaged and abused. "Trainspotting": Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food into your mouth; choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in Portsmouth. When Dickens was twelve years' old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his father had been imprisoned for debt. In 1833 he began to publish short stories and essays in newspapers and magazines. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year that he married Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and Dickens became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up and edited the journals Household Words (1850-9) and All the Year Round (1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870 leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Irvine Welsh is the author of eight previous works of fiction, most recently The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs. He lives in Dublin.

Review:

"Oliver Twist: An unforgettable journey into criminal behaviour that takes me back to my own childhood fantasies" -- Malcolm McDowell "Oliver Twist: Dickens is huge - like the sky. Pick any page of Dickens and it's immediately recognizable as him, yet he might be doing social satire, or farce, or horror, or a psychological study of a murderer - or any combination of these" -- Susannah Clarke "Oliver Twist: The image of little Oliver Twist victimised by poverty, almost seduced by the specious excitement of crime, and then offered the possibility of a lucrative career in authorship is always compelling" Guardian "Trainspotting: Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing for decades" Sunday Times "Trainspotting: One of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force" -- Nick Hornby

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0099511339
• ISBN 13: 9780099511335
• Binding: Paperback