Allison Epstein’s 2025 novel, Fagin, the Thief, is a prime example of the sort of book that made me launch this Neo-Victorian Voices blog series, exploring and reviewing works set in the nineteenth century, but written in the twenty-first.
In this highly engaging and thought-provoking novel, she takes a beloved Victorian classic, Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist (1838), but then focuses on the backstory and parallel arc of the character modern readers may struggle with the most—the Jewish thief and corrupter of innocent boys, Fagin.
Epstein’s Fagin has a first name, Jacob, a criminal father, who was executed before his birth, and a heart, caring deeply for his mother, as well as the ill-fated Nancy and her lover and murderer, Bill Sikes, who was once a boy in Fagin's care. But, even more crucially, Jacob Fagin has a context. Born into a Jewish community in London, he faces prejudice from his early years and his story intersects with contemporary debates about the role and status of Jews in British politics and society. This context helps transform Fagin from stock villain into a fully realized and complex character.
This is not to say Epstein’s Fagin is fully redeemed (he is a notorious pickpocket, after all!), but even at his worst, she depicts him as sympathetic, leaving us longing for his story to end differently than in Dickens’s original (spoiler alert: it just might). There are many retellings of nineteenth-century novels on the shelves of the historical fiction aisle. This stands out, for me, as one of the best.
What novel should I read next as part of my Neo-Victorian Voices series? Let me know—here, on Instagram, on Facebook, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. Want to keep up with the latest about my writing and from my blog? Sign up to my monthly email newsletter here.
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