Publisher's Synopsis
Oliver TWIST - 1/3
Fisrt of three volumes
After a miserable childhood spent in public workhouses, the lonely, starving and miserable orphan boy, Oliver TWIST, runs away when he is barely twelve.
Reaching London, Oliver is taken in by a gang of thieves and housebreakers led by the evil genius and master criminal, Fagin.
Eventually befriended by a man robbed by the gang, Oliver finally learns his true identity, and gains a family and an inheritance.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport Portsea, England, in 1812, the second of eight children.
His father, a clerk, moved the family to London when Charles was ten years old. Two years later, the boy had to leave school to help support the family.
But Charles read constantly in his spare time. He also wandered around the poor working-class districts and the slum areas where criminals hung out.
These places and their inhabitants were described vividly in his novels.
In 1832, Dickens, who had since returned to school, became a newspaper reporter. Four years later, he published Pickwick Papers, his first major novel.
Oliver Twist appeared in 1838. Other leading works included David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and Tale of Two Cities.
