Charles Dickens

OLIVER TWIST or The Parish Boy's Progress By Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist is the second novel by the English writer Charles Dickens. It was first published as a serial between 1837 and 1839. The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin. This book is a masterpiece of literature and a brilliant example of XIX century social novel. It is steeped by a deep black sense of humor concerning thorny issues such as child labor and life in a metropolis devastated by violent industrialization which destroys every human value.

"Please, sir, I want some more," Oliver says, holding out his bowl for more gruel, a Dickens scene recognizable to most. A young orphan, Oliver Twist has only ever seen the tough side of life, and having to suddenly live on the streets does not make surviving any easier. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel, and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.