Book Review: Artful by Peter David
As long time readers will recall, some years ago I read and reviewed the classic Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. Towards the end, the last we see of Oliver’s friend acquaintance the Artful Dodger is in court, where he’s sentenced to be transported to Australia for thievery. (A crime which he most certainly did commit.) But the novel never says he actually got on the prison ship. What if the Artful Dodger, in fact, escaped?
That’s the premise of this professionally published fanfiction by noted author Peter David. In it, Jack “Artful Dodger” Dawkins manages to slip out of durance vile and resume his criminal career as a solo performer, rather than under the thumb of his former master Fagin. But there are worse things on the streets of late Georgian Era London than cocky pickpockets or brutish police officers. There are vampyres.
Not, you’d think, the Dodger’s problem. He’s kind of scrawny and fast on his feet, so not a good prospect for a meal. But in short order the Dodger meets two young people for whom vampyres are looking. The sheltered runaway girl nicknamed Drina, and Bram van Helsing, son of the vampyre hunter Isaac van Helsing. Bram’s reason for being sought by vampyres is pretty obvious, but Drina has no idea why she’s being chased.
Master Dawkins is soon up to his not-so-clean neck in trouble, so it’s a matter of saving himself and his new friends, and if that just happens to result in saving the British Empire, so be it.
Several characters from the original novel appear, though at least one seems rather forced (and this in a story that runs on coincidences!) Even Oliver Twist makes a cameo. In addition, there are other literary references. (A Wiggins! A certain Transylvanian nobleman! Spring-Heeled Jack! Oz!)
Having got his training in comic book writing, Mr. David invents a sympathetic backstory for the Artful Dodger that also ties into the present plotline.
There are some cool action sequences, and the Dodger is a fun personality to read.
Fagin shows up in the story, despite having been dead at the end of the novel, but then again he’s technically not alive. There’s some period anti-Semitism, but it’s also made clear that most of Fagin’s problems stem from him just being a terrible person.
Recommended for folks who enjoy books that inject supernatural entities into classic literature.
Here’s a song by the band Artful Dodger, no relation to the novel but what the hey.
