Book

Oliver Twist / Charles Dickens.

Summary:

"Oliver Twist sent out shock waves when it apeared in 1838. With a half-starved orphan for a hero, it was Dickens' first attempt to rouse the public conscience over the social evils of his day. A parade of memorable characters drives the author's message home: Mr. Bumble, the workhouse beadle; Fagin, who runs a den of child thieves; Oliver's streetwise friend, the Artful Dodger; Nancy, the prostitute; and her lover, Bill Sikes. The adventures of the innocent Oliver -- from workhouse to London's underworld, and how he was rescued -- is one of Dickens' most popular stories."--Publisher.

Oliver Twist is born an orphan and grows up handed from bad position to worse. Eventually he ends up in the London street gang run by Fagin, who attempts to blacken the boy's pure soul in his service. Through chance and coincidence Oliver is restored to his mother's middle-class family, where he is shown love and comfort for the first time in his life. The villains' attempts to kidnap him back are foiled and all are transported or hanged.