Publisher's Synopsis
Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse. His mother managed to cast a glance at him and died; Before the boy was nine years old, he could not find out who his parents were.Not a single affectionate word, not a single affectionate glance had ever illuminated his dull infant years, he knew only hunger, beatings, bullying and deprivation. From the workhouse, Oliver is apprenticed to the undertaker; there he encounters an orphanage boy, Noé Kleipol, who, being older and stronger, constantly subjected Oliver to humiliation. He meekly demolishes everything until one day Noe spoke badly of his mother - this Oliver could not endure and beat off a stronger and stronger, but cowardly offender. He is severely punished, and he flees from the undertaker.
Seeing the London signpost, Oliver heads there. He sleeps in haystacks, suffers from hunger, cold and fatigue. On the seventh day after an escape in the town of Barnet, Oliver met a tattered man of his age, who introduced himself as Jack Dawkins, nicknamed the Artful Dodger, fed him and promised in London overnight and patronage. The artful Dodger brought Oliver to the buyer of stolen goods, the godfather of the London thieves and fraudsters to the Jew Fagin - it was his patronage that was meant. Fagin promises to teach Oliver the craft and give work, and while the boy spends many days mating the tags from the handkerchiefs that young thieves bring to Fagin. When he first goes to work and sees firsthand how his tricks Dodgy Dodger and Charlie Bates pull a handkerchief out of a certain gentleman's pocket, he runs in horror, they grab him like a thief and drag him to the judge. Fortunately, the gentleman refuses the lawsuit and, full of sympathy for the baited child, takes him to him. Oliver has been sick for a long time, Mr. Brownlow and his housekeeper, Mrs. Badwin, nursing him, marveling at his resemblance to the portrait of a young beautiful woman hanging in the living room. Mr. Brownlow wants to take Oliver to be raised.
However, Fagin, fearing that Oliver will bring the representatives of the law to his trail, hunts down and kidnaps him. He strives at all costs to make Oliver a thief and achieve complete submission to the boy. For the robbery of the house Fagin had observed, where he was very attracted by silverware, the performer of this action, Bill Sykes, who had recently returned from prison, needed a lean boy who, if thrust through the window, would open the door for the robbers. The choice falls on Oliver.
Oliver is determined to raise the alarm in the house as soon as he is there, so as not to participate in the crime. But he did not have time: the house was guarded, and the boy, half-shoved through the window, was immediately wounded in the arm. Sykes pulls him bleeding and takes him away, but, having heard the chase, throws him into the ditch, not knowing for sure whether he is alive or dead. Waking up, Oliver reaches the porch of the house; Mrs. Mayley, her inmates, and her niece, Rose, put him to bed and call a doctor, abandoning the idea of giving the poor child to the police.
