Includes bibliographical references.

Oliver Twist is born an orphan and grows up handed from bad position to worse. Eventually he ends up in the London street gang run by Fagin, who attempts to blacken the boy's pure soul in his service. Through chance and coincidence Oliver is restored to his mother's middle-class family, where he is shown love and comfort for the first time in his life. The villains' attempts to kidnap him back are foiled and all are transported or hanged. A simplified retelling of the adventures of an orphan boy who lives in the squalid surroundings of a nineteenth-century English workhouse until he becomes involved with a gang of thieves. The miserable and hungry orphan Oliver Twist is forced to flee his wretched life at the workhouse and ends up alone in London. Innocent and vulnerable, young Oliver enters the terrifying street world of the poor and desperate and soon falls into the clutches of criminal mastermind Fagin and his gang of youthful pickpockets. GENERAL and LITERARY FICTION. Charles Dickens's second novel is the tale of a young orphan who faces the gruelling conditions of a Victorian workhouse before finding himself sucked into the criminal underworld of London. Teeming with unforgettable characters such as the villainous Fagin, the virtuous Nancy and the brutal Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist combines dark humour, elements of melodrama and social polemic. At once a ferocious indictment of the author's era and a timeless story of coming of age, this classic has enthralled readers and inspired countless adaptations and imitations since it was first published in 1838. First published in 1873-9 - Film and television tie-in. Oliver Twist is orphaned and on the streets of London. Alone and vulnerable, he forms a new kind of family with a group of pickpockets, led by the enigmatic Fagin. At first Oliver's new family provides a sense of hope, but it is not long before the true colours of London's underclass reveals itself: prostitution, scheming, desperation and greed surround Oliver, making his prospects of happiness seem bleak. But this young boy, who never seems to stop running, is nothing like those he runs from. Oliver Twist is a mesmerising story of childhood and, ultimately, of success against the odds. Orphaned at birth, Oliver Twist grows up under the loveless, relentless watch of a workhouse. He runs away with hopes for a better life in London, only to become, at the hands of the unforgettable Artful Dodger, a guileless pawn in a gang of pickpockets and robbers working for Fagin, one of Dickens's most controversial villains. Oliver Twist is born in the harsh confines of a workhouse, his mother expiring in childbirth, his father unknown. After enduring years of brutal treatment, Oliver runs away to London, where he falls in with a band of child pickpockets led by the villainous Fagin. His foray into a life of crime soon lands him into the arms of the law, when Oliver's fortunes finally appear to turn as the robbery victim becomes his benefactor. But Fagin isn't about to let his young recruit go so easily, and with vicious thug Bill Sikes among his henchmen, Oliver soon finds himself back in the criminals' lair, with many more travails to face on the torturous road to discovering the truth about his past. In Oliver Twist Dickens exposes the sordid underbelly of Victorian England, where rootless young innocents are at the mercy both of brutal institutions and the corrupting forces that lurk on the streets. -- from publisher. The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'.