Complete Map

The complete map, almost extraordinarily dense in its complexity, demonstrates just how spatial Oliver Twist is. Focusing in, and taking two settings, London and Chertsey, as examples, indicates how relatively little importance is given to the non-metropolitan. ‘Toporefs’ such as ‘lanes’ and fields’ show that Chertsey is far less delineated than London which, laid out street-by-street: ‘Highgate Hill’, ‘the Heath’.

The dominance of direct connections between the setting or ‘topoi’ nodes and spatial references or ‘toporefs’ speaks of the contained nature of each space. This correlates with the novel’s original serial form, each space, like each instalment, is – to a certain extent – self-contained.