Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist, or The Parish Boy’s Progress, is the second novel by Charles Dickens, published in monthly installments in Bentley’s Miscellany from February 1837 to April 1839. It was one of the first novels in English to center its story on a child protagonist and to expose the cruelty inflicted on the poor by the institutions meant to help them.

Born in a workhouse and orphaned at birth, Oliver endures a childhood of neglect and abuse before fleeing to London, where he falls into the clutches of Fagin, an aging criminal who trains a gang of young pickpockets. Among them is the Artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes, and the tragic Nancy, whose loyalty to Oliver sets in motion the novel’s devastating climax. Through Oliver’s journey, Dickens launched a fierce attack on the Poor Law system and the hypocrisy of a society that punished poverty while turning a blind eye to its causes.

Bold, sentimental, and unflinching in its social criticism, Oliver Twist remains one of the most enduring works of Victorian fiction, its characters and scenes etched permanently into the literary imagination.