The Story of Oliver Twist*

The Story of Oliver Twist* by Charles Dickens

A pale, undersized boy named Oliver Twist is born in a parish workhouse to a nameless, dying mother, and is raised in near-starvation under the neglectful Mrs. Mann before being returned to the workhouse at nine. There, chosen by lot to ask for more gruel after the boys' hunger becomes unbearable, he provokes the Board's fury and is offered as an apprentice for five pounds. Nearly bound to a brutal chimney-sweep, he instead becomes apprentice to the undertaker Sowerberry, where he endures cruelty from the older apprentice Noah Claypole. When Noah insults Oliver's dead mother, Oliver attacks him, is beaten by Noah, Charlotte, and Mrs. Sowerberry, and flees to walk seventy miles to London. Near London, Oliver meets Jack Dawkins, "the Artful Dodger," who brings him to old Fagin, a Jew who runs a den of boy pickpockets alongside Charley Bates and others. Unaware of their trade, Oliver is horrified when he witnesses Dawkins and Bates rob an old gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, at a work-stall. Oliver is chased, caught, and nearly convicted, but the bookseller's testimony clears him. Brownlow, moved by Oliver's face, takes him home, nurses him through illness, and considers adopting him. Fearing Oliver will expose the gang, Fagin enlists the burglar Bill Sikes and the girl Nancy to recapture him. Sent on an errand for Brownlow, Oliver is seized by Nancy (pretending he is her runaway brother) and Sikes, and dragged back to Fagin's den, where the Dodger and Charley mock him and the Artful Dodger takes Brownlow's five-pound note and books. Fagin, wanting Oliver criminally implicated, forces him to join Sikes and Toby Crackit in a burglary, pushing him through a small window to unlock a house. The attempt fails; Oliver is shot and wounded, and Sikes and Crackit abandon him in a ditch. Wounded and half-conscious, Oliver crawls back to the same house, that of Mrs. Maylie and her niece Rose. They take him in, nurse him, and grow fond of him; Oliver studies, recovers, and forms a devoted, tender bond with Rose. One evening, half-asleep, Oliver sees Fagin and a sinister stranger named Monks watching him through his window; though the household finds no trace of them, the sighting was real, and Monks — Oliver's unexplained enemy — has been plotting with Fagin. Nancy, guilt-stricken over her part in Oliver's recapture, overhears Monks and Fagin discussing a secret tied to Oliver's birth and warns Rose Maylie in a clandestine meeting, at great personal risk. Meanwhile Oliver, spotting Brownlow by chance, leads Rose to his home; Rose tells Brownlow of Oliver's history and the new conspiracy, and Brownlow vows to investigate Monks. Nancy's meetings with Rose are secretly observed by Noah Claypole, now a spy for Fagin, who reports her to the Jew. Fagin passes this to Sikes, who in a rage beats Nancy to death. The murder sets off a manhunt: Sikes flees the city and hangs himself accidentally while trying to escape across a rooftop; Fagin is captured, tried, and sentenced to death. Brownlow brings Oliver to Fagin's cell the night before his execution to learn where he has hidden certain papers; the Jew, half out of his mind with terror, reveals their hiding place in a chimney before being dragged away shrieking as the sentence is carried out. Noah Claypole turns state's evidence and escapes punishment; Dawkins is caught and transported; Charley Bates, shaken by Nancy's death, reforms and becomes honest. Monks is traced and seized by Brownlow's agents and confesses: he is Oliver's half-brother, and their dead father's will provided for Oliver, which is why Monks conspired with Fagin to destroy him. The recovered papers confirm Oliver's parentage and his right to a share of the family estate. It is further revealed that Rose Maylie is the younger sister of Oliver's dead mother, making her his aunt — though Oliver, overjoyed, insists on calling her his sister instead. The two orphans are united at last, surrounded by loving friends.

By Charles Dickens · First published 1837 · Genre: Social criticism, Bildungsroman, Realism · 4 chapters · 11,994 words

First lines

Some years ago when the poorhouses of England were in a bad state and the poor people housed within them were often ill-treated, a little waif began his life under the roof of one of the worst of them. His mother had wandered there, weak, wretched and without friends, it seemed, for she gave no clue to her identity; and after her little boy was born she had only strength enough to kiss him once before she breathed her last. As no one knew anything about her, the child became a charge upon the parish. He was sent with other orphans and homeless little ones to be cared for by an elderly woman named Mrs. Mann, who received from the parish officers but a scant allowance for the needs of the children, to whom she gave, in the shape of food and attention, a still shorter return.

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orphan · poverty · Victorian · London · crime · social injustice · child labor · adventure · friendship · survival · class struggle · abandonment

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