Oliver Twist

Born in a parish workhouse and raised in cruelty and hunger, the orphan Oliver Twist commits the unforgivable sin of asking for more gruel — and is cast out into the world. Apprenticed, mistreated, and finally driven to flee to London on foot, he falls into the orbit of Fagin, an old criminal who trains destitute children as pickpockets, and his associates: the swaggering Artful Dodger, the brutal housebreaker Bill Sikes, and the tragic Nancy.

As Oliver is pulled between the underworld that wants to use him and the few good people determined to save him, the mystery of his true parentage moves toward a revelation that could restore everything that was stolen from him.

Dickens's second novel is a furious piece of social criticism disguised as a melodrama — an indictment of the workhouse system, child poverty, and the criminalisation of the destitute in Victorian England. By turns sentimental, comic, and genuinely frightening, Oliver Twist created some of the most enduring characters in English fiction and helped establish Dickens as the conscience of his age.