Publication of Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens's second novel follows an orphan boy raised in a harsh workhouse who runs away to London and falls in with a gang of child pickpockets led by the old criminal Fagin. Along the way he meets the Artful Dodger, the brutal Bill Sikes and the doomed Nancy, before a kindly gentleman, Mr Brownlow, takes an interest in him. The story first appeared in monthly instalments in a magazine before being issued as a book. It attacked the cruelty of the New Poor Law of 1834 and drew public attention to the plight of poor children in Victorian England. Several stage, film and musical adaptations have followed.

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