The New Student's Reference Work/Oliver Twist

Ol′iver Twist, a favorite novel by Charles Dickens which takes its title from the hero of the story, was first published in Bentley's Miscellany in serial form during 1837-9. Oliver Twist had been brought up in a workhouse of the worst type, and only escaped from his subsequent apprenticeship to an undertaker to fall into the clutches of Fagin the Jew and his gang of pickpockets. But through all temptations and sordid influences of environment Oliver remained simple, pure and uncontaminated. Oliver Twist has far more of plot and tragic power than the Pickwick Papers which preceded it. Its pathos is even greater than its humor.