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 tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid & memorable characters
- the arch-villain Fagin the artful Dodger the menacing Bill Sikes & the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic Romance the Newgate Novel & popular melodrama in Oliver Twist" Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction scathing in its indictment of a cruel society & pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat & mystery."