Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, published by Penguin Classics on January 25, 2012, is a critical edition that presents the story of the orphan Oliver, who escapes from a workhouse and is drawn into a world of crime. This edition features the serial text from 1837–39, allowing readers to experience the novel as it was originally presented. The narrative explores themes of childhood innocence in the face of evil, set against the backdrop of a dark criminal underworld in London, populated by memorable characters such as Fagin, the artful Dodger, Bill Sikes, and Nancy.
In this edition, readers will find Dickens’s 1841 introduction and 1850 preface, along with the original illustrations and a glossary of contemporary slang. The book combines elements of Gothic romance and popular melodrama, offering a scathing critique of society while immersing readers in a tale filled with threat and mystery. With 608 pages, this English-language edition serves as a significant contribution to the literary canon, reflecting Dickens’s innovative approach to storytelling and character development.
Official synopsis Publisher
The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse, only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens’s tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters — the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic romance, the Newgate novel and popular melodrama, in Oliver Twist Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.
This is the first critical edition to use the serial text of 1837—9, presenting Oliver Twist as it appeared to its earliest readers. It includes Dickens’s 1841 introduction and 1850 preface, the original illustrations and a glossary of contemporary slang.
‘The power of [Dickens] is so amazing, that the reader at once becomes his captive’ WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
Edited with an introduction and notes by PHILIP HORNE
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