Monks (Oliver Twist)

Monks
Monks (left) depicted by James Mahoney
Portrayed byCarl Stockdale (1922 film)
Ralph Truman (1948 film)
John Carson (1962 TV serial)
Oliver Cotton (1982 TV film)
Pip Donaghy (1985 TV serial)
Marc Warren (1999 miniseries)
Julian Rhind-Tutt (2007 miniseries)
Ezekiel Simat (2023 TV series)
In-universe information
Full nameEdward Leeford
GenderMale
OccupationCriminal
FamilyEdwin Leeford (father, deceased)
Mrs Leeford (mother, deceased)
Oliver Twist (half-brother)
NationalityEnglish

Edward "Monks" Leeford is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists (alongside Bill Sikes) in the 1838 novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.[1] He is actually the criminally-inclined half-brother of Oliver Twist, but he hides his identity. Monks' parents separated when he was a child, and his father had a relationship with a young woman, Agnes Fleming. This resulted in Agnes' pregnancy. She died in childbirth after giving birth to the baby that would be named Oliver Twist.

  1. ^ Robbins, Ruth; Wolfreys, Julian (6 December 1995). Victorian Identities: Social and Cultural Formations in Nineteenth-Century Literature. Springer. p. 135. ISBN 9781349243495 – via Google Books.