2. Why did Fagin not have a family somewhere?

3. What happened to those boys raised in the iffy companionship of pickpockets and petty thieves? Did they ever cross back to the legal side of the law?

Unfortunately, Charles Dickens dropped Dodger, Charlie Bates, and Monks from the story with short and dismissive sentences. “The Artful Dodger was deported.” That’s it? 

Charlie Bates learned a trade and never picked pockets again. But what happened to him?

Monks went through his inheritance and began illegally bilking people with renewed effort.

The purpose of the book was, in part, to show how some people became the way they were in the Dickens novel.  But it is also intended to show that, no matter how they started, they can always become more than they were. (In the case of a few characters, they go the opposite direction.)

One important aspect of the book is the historic background that appears in scene after scene.  Whether the shadow of slavery or indentured workers, the story highlights (with very little that is not historically accurate) the way people lived and struggled to survive.

In The Further Adventures of Gentleman Jack and Mister Twist, the Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist, I resolved to explore the probable past and possible future for many of them. My novel is in two parts. It is a modern story that just happens to be set around the mid-1830s. It clearly answers that question.

Part One: Dodger in Boston

“The Artful Dodger was deported.” By writing that, Charles Dickens may have intended for Dodger to be deported to Botany Bay Penal Colony in Australia. But Judge Olden Grayfield had other prerogatives. “Good heavens, no, Mr. Dawkins. I’m not sending you to Australia! Notoriety doesn’t make you dangerous.”

As his ship lands in Boston, Jack Dawkins realizes, in order to succeed in the new world, he will have to change from streetwise pickpocket to an American gentleman. One night, Dodger gazes at the full panoply of stars above, recognizing that each star points a possible path to take to the future. Who he was in England does not mean it is who he had to remain in America!

His adventures as he progresses along that course allow him to meet many friends from his past. For one thing, he finds he is a Stone, his father being the brother of Galting Stone, the man to whom Dodger is in service. Jack also encounters an old enemy – Oliver Twist’s half-brother, Monks – who plunges Jack into a harrowing ordeal. The horrible abduction of Jack Dawkins transports him down to Philadelphia. When it appears rescue (by Paul Stone and Charlie Bates) might save him, Dodger steals Monks’ pistol and fires it at him blindfolded, killing Monks.

The greatest danger, however, comes through his love for the beautiful Angelica. She visits the neighbors for several months due to the squabbles her parents were having. Her mother forces her to return home and forbids her to write to Jack. When he goes to visit her, Angelica has fled from her home into the woods.

“Sir, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to speak briefly with your daughter, Angelica?”

Alice Bingham, Angelica’s mother, steps into the doorway, shoving Robert aside. “I warned you, young man, and if you do not leave at once, I shall call . . .”

“You shall call no one, Alice Bingham!” Robert slams his voice into her name to prove to Alice that she is, after all, his wife. Robert has seldom been so angry. “Go to your room, Alice, and begin packing your things. Angelica is gone, and she is not here in this house. I am going with my brother and these young men to find her. Night is coming on, and I don’t want her out there overnight, whether she’s alone in the city or in the woods. I hope not to be gone too long. You will be gone from this house when I return?”

When they find Angelica, she is in a cabin in the woods. A bear cub is on the porch, but it is the mama bear who attacks Jack. Alice Bingham, a nurse, is forced to help operate on Jack’s wounds. He gradually recovers, and during his recovery, he and Angelica finally show one another the depth of their love. Once Jack’s wounds have healed, they marry.

Part Two: Oliver Twist in America

Four years after the close of part one, Oliver Twist returns to the story. In London, Oliver finds a formidable enemy in Ian Ross, a man who is trying to distance himself from the reputation of his family, particularly his Uncle Fagin. Oliver finds the box of Fagin’s jewels and money, reclaiming it for himself. Inside, however, he finds the Will and Testament of Fagin, a document giving the money to Fagin’s nephew, Tristan Ian Ross.

Upon the death of Mr. Brownlow, Oliver flees from Ian Ross to the States, where he is reunited with his old friend Dodger, also finding people lost to him in his past. Oliver’s father, reported to be dead years ago, is one of those Oliver rediscovers. Oliver’s childhood has left scars that affect his ability to adapt to America. Slavery bothers him greatly.

Oliver and Thurmond Yancey head south to explore the architecture down in the New Jersey/Philadelphia area. (Hoping, possibly, to take their minds from the rampant slavery in the north.) While staying at a small hotel, Oliver tries to help some people he sees next door, people who are being transported south into slavery. He knows them! The slave-trader dies in the scuffle. Judge Peak (who had been the judge for Dodger), asks Oliver why he got involved.

“Many people would have avoided the altercation to let Pratt beat on them.”

Oliver lowered his head. A tear rolled down his cheek. It took the crowd a moment to realize that Oliver was fighting to retain emotional control. “Sir, have you ever felt a whip bite into your back? Have you ever done nothing wrong and been punished severely for it? Have you ever been punished just because you exist? To all of these I answer that I have . . . frequently! What it does to your soul can never mend. Some of you probably say Pratt struck me with his whip. He never landed a solid blow. I’d have known if he did because of my childhood. Your honor, that was why I went into the alley, yelling and trying my best to stop Timothy Pratt from doing what he most wanted to continue doing. My goal was simply to get the whip away from him. Once I had that done, I wanted to back off.”

Implacable foes don’t give up easily, and Tristan Ian Ross, himself newly landed in Boston, appears again to threaten all those who knew and felt loyalty to Fagin. The young boys are growing up with adult and dangerous enemies. In the following weeks those who knew Fagin were amazed how much Ross had changed to look like his uncle. The altercation ends with Ross dead, but Oliver is severely wounded.

Gentleman Jack and Mister Twist finally realize that who you were does not limit who you can become. You may be well-born and sink into madness, or you can be poorly born, a thief, and become a law abiding citizen of stature.

Jack Dawkins, also known as The Artful Dodger, and Oliver Twist, sometimes called Brownlow or Leeford, are friends for life, and nothing can ever change that. No one wants to change that. They are at best content to be who they are: Bright stars in a vast universe of stars. Gentleman Jack and Mr. Twist could not ask for better than that.

The back cover: As originally published the back cover had much but not all of what is above. Included was the following paragraph:

The Further Adventures and Life of Jack Dawkins, also known as The Artful Dodger was published in 2010. Mr. Montgomery has greatly expanded the original story to bring it to its full and most potent form, with tasty new characters in a very Dickens mold.

It wasn’t that I did not know the story of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, but early in the 21st century I realized that there were many aspects of the story I did not remember. They were dropped from various movies on the subject.  After reading the novel, I had several questions that the famous story did not answer.

1. Dodger was not born in the group of boys headed by Fagin, so where did he come from, and how was it that he was so at ease and controlling at the same time?
2. Why did Fagin not have a family somewhere?
3. What happened to those boys raised in the iffy companionship of pickpockets and petty thieves? Did they ever cross back to the legal side of the law?

Unfortunately, Charles Dickens dropped Dodger, Charlie Bates, and Monks from the story with short and dismissive sentences. “The Artful Dodger was deported.” That’s it? Charlie Bates learned a trade and never picked pockets again. But what happened to him? Monks went through his inheritance and began illegally bilking people with renewed effort.

As I began to think through the various characters, I realized that none of the characters, other than Oliver, had backgrounds or presumed futures. I thought that those years with Fagin must surely influence the ways the people matured.

At first, I concentrated on Dodger, producing the book The Further Adventures and Life of Jack Dawkins, also known as the Artful Dodger. I felt I had to bring Dodger to America, because he would never survive the rigors of life in Australia of that time. (It was also important that I knew much less about Australia than I did the history in any part of the United States.)  I had barely published it, when I realized it was only the beginning of the combined story. Oliver needed to re-enter the story. That first novel became part one of this newer work.

We like to think of Oliver as gentle and sweet all the time, but the undertaker in the Dickens work, Sowerbury, would disagree. Oliver had quite a few tantrums while in his house. But then, once he was in the United States, seeing American slavery and the reactions to it shook loose the hidden cobwebs of Oliver’s past in the workhouse and orphanage. As I began to expand on Oliver’s life, bringing him eventually to the altar, I used that darker part of Oliver to give him a moody side. It also anchored the story of both men into life in America.

I made certain, since they were part of the original impetus to write the story, that Fagin’s past and family, and that of Mr. Brownlow came into focus, too. They were formative men for Oliver and Dodger, and we needed to know about them. Besides, they, too, influenced the future, even after their deaths.

So, to those who remember Oliver’s plaintive (and iconic), “Please sir, I want some more” – I can say that this is the answer to that. I have given the reader a lot more. And, until you’ve read this book, “You don’t know Jack!” – (the Artful Dodger.)