Oliver Twist, or, The parish boy's progress
By: Charles Dickens ; edited with an introduction and notes by Philip Horne.
Contributors: Horne, Philip.
Series: Penguin classics
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2003
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 554
ISBN-13: 9780141439747
Subjects: Boys -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Criminals -- Fiction; Kidnapping victims -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Other titles: Oliver Twist; Parish boy's progress
Description: 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 Oltver Twist as it appeared to its earliest readers. It includes Dickens's 1841 introduction and 1 850 preface, the original illustra- tions and a glossary of contemporary slang.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. xlv-xlix).