Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in
1830s England. His mother dies just after Oliver’s birth. Oliver spends the
first nine years of his life in a home for young orphans and then is transferred
to a workhouse for adults. He is eventually apprenticed to a local undertaker,
but runs away and travels toward London. He is half-starved and exhausted when
he meets a boy his own age just outside the city. Jack takes him home with him;
he lives with Fagin, a career criminal who trains orphan boys to pick pockets
for him.
After a few days of training, Oliver is
sent out with two other boys to pickpocket. He is caught but Mr. Brownlow, the victim,
Oliver to his home. Mr. Brownlow is struck by Oliver’s resemblance to a
portrait of a young woman that hangs in his house. Oliver thrives in Mr.
Brownlow’s home, but is captured by other gang members and returned to Fagin.
Fagin sends Oliver to assist in a burglary, and Oliver is shot by a
servant of the house and taken in by the Maylie women who live there. They grow
fond of Oliver, and he spends the summer with them in the countryside. When they come to London, they reunite him
with Mr. Brownlow. Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, and they and the
Maylies retire to a blissful existence in the countryside.
362 pages
Copyright 1837
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