Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity.

Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sykes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'.

For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

Preface

The Text of Oliver Twist

 The Author's Preface to the Third Edition (1841)

 Cover Illustration by George Cruikshank(Part I, January 1846)

 Title Page for the 1846 One-Volume Edition

 The Contents of Oliver Twist

 Oliver Twist (The Edition of 1846)

 Illustration: Oliver asking for more (Cruikshank)

 Illustration: Oliver's reception by Fagin and the boys (Cruikshank)

Backgrounds and Sources

 A Map of the London of Oliver Twist (1828)

 [Tire Poor Law Debate]

 [The Poor Law Riots]

 Charles Dickens Letters About Oliver Twist (1837-64)

 To Richard Bentley, January 24, 1837

 To Richard Bentley, May 8, 1837

 To Thomas Beard, May 17, 1837

 To Thomas Haines, June 3, 1837

 To George Cruikshank, October 13, 1837

 To John Forster, Mid-December 1837

 To Richard Bentley, October 3, 1838

 To John Forster, October 6 or 13, 1838

 To Eliza Davis, July 10, 1863

 To Eliza Davis, November 16, 1864

 Table of Installments and Chapter-Division in

 Different Editions of Oliver Twist

 Charles Dickens [An Appeal to Fallen Women]

 Charles Dickens Sikes and Nancy

Early Reviews

 [John Forster ] From The Examiner, September 10, 1837

 Anonyinous From The Spectator, November 24, 1838

 Anonymous From The Literary Gazette,November 24, 1838

 Anonymous From Monthly Review, January 1839

 [Richard Ford] From Quarterly Review, 1839

 William Makepeace Thackeray [On Oliver Twist] (1839-40)

 Anonymous Charles Dickens and His Works (April 1840)

 Anonymous Literary Recipes (August 1841)

Criticism

 Henry James [On Oliver Twist and Cruikshank]

 George Gissing Oliver Twist

 Graham Greene The Young Dickens

 J. Hillis Miller Oliver Twist

 Harry Stone Dickens and the Jews

 Philip Collins [Dickens and Murder]

 John Bayley Oliver Twist: "Things as they really are"

 Keith Hollingsworth The Newgate Novel and the Moral Argument, 1837-40

 Steven Marcus Who Is Fagin?

 Monroe Engel The Social and Political Issues

 James R. Kincaid Oliver Twist: Laughter and the Rhetoric of Attack

 Michael Slater On Reading Oliver Twist

 Dennis Walder [Oliver Twist and Charity]

 Burton M. Wheeler The Text and Plan of Oliver Twist

 Janet Larson [Oliver Twist and Christian Scripture]

 Fred Kaplan [The Creation of Oliver Twist]

 Robert Tracy·"The Old Story" and Inside Stories:

  Modish Fiction and Fictional Modes in Oliver Twist

 David Miller·[Oliver Twist and the Police]

 John O. Jordan·The Purloined Handkerchief

 Garry Wills·The Loves of Oliver Twist

Gharles Dickens:A Chronology

Selected Bibliography