Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens’s novel of Oliver Twist, an orphan born in a workhouse, who runs away to London and falls in with a gang of young pickpockets kept by the old thief Fagin.

Start reading53 chapters, about 158,000 words

Famous quotes

• “Please, sir, I want some more.”

  Chapter IIIn context

  • Food

• It was a nice sickly season just at this time. In commercial phrase, coffins were looking up

  Chapter VIIn context

  • Comedy

• There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.

  Chapter XIn context

  • Character

• Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

  Chapter XXXVIIIn context

  • Character
  • Pride

• “It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper,” said Mr. Bumble. “So cry away.”

  Chapter XXXVIIIn context

  • Comedy

• “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass⁠—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience⁠—by experience.”

  Chapter LIIn context

  • Clever Jabs
  • Laws

Contents

1. Chapter ITreats of the Place Where Oliver Twist Was Born and of the Circumstances Attending His Birth
2. Chapter IITreats of Oliver Twist’s Growth, Education, and Board
3. Chapter IIIRelates How Oliver Twist Was Very Near Getting a Place Which Would Not Have Been a Sinecure
4. Chapter IVOliver, Being Offered Another Place, Makes His First Entry into Public Life
5. Chapter VOliver Mingles with New Associates. Going to a Funeral for the First Time, He Forms an Unfavourable Notion of His Master’s Business
6. Chapter VIOliver, Being Goaded by the Taunts of Noah, Rouses into Action, and Rather Astonishes Him
7. Chapter VIIOliver Continues Refractory
8. Chapter VIIIOliver Walks to London. He Encounters on the Road a Strange Sort of Young Gentleman
9. Chapter IXContaining Further Particulars Concerning the Pleasant Old Gentleman, and His Hopeful Pupils
10. Chapter XOliver Becomes Better Acquainted with the Characters of His New Associates; and Purchases Experience at a High Price. Being a Short, but Very Important Chapter, in This History
11. Chapter XITreats of Mr. Fang the Police Magistrate; and Furnishes a Slight Specimen of His Mode of Administering Justice
12. Chapter XIIIn Which Oliver Is Taken Better Care of Than He Ever Was Before. and in Which the Narrative Reverts to the Merry Old Gentleman and His Youthful Friends
13. Chapter XIIISome New Acquaintances Are Introduced to the Intelligent Reader, Connected with Whom Various Pleasant Matters Are Related, Appertaining to This History
14. Chapter XIVComprising Further Particulars of Oliver’s Stay at Mr. Brownlow’s, with the Remarkable Prediction Which One Mr. Grimwig Uttered Concerning Him, When He Went Out on an Errand
15. Chapter XVShowing How Very Fond of Oliver Twist, the Merry Old Jew and Miss Nancy Were
16. Chapter XVIRelates What Became of Oliver Twist, After He Had Been Claimed by Nancy
17. Chapter XVIIOliver’s Destiny Continuing Unpropitious, Brings a Great Man to London to Injure His Reputation
18. Chapter XVIIIHow Oliver Passed His Time in the Improving Society of His Reputable Friends
19. Chapter XIXIn Which a Notable Plan Is Discussed and Determined On
20. Chapter XXWherein Oliver Is Delivered Over to Mr. William Sikes
21. Chapter XXIThe Expedition
22. Chapter XXIIThe Burglary
23. Chapter XXIIIWhich Contains the Substance of a Pleasant Conversation Between Mr. Bumble and a Lady; and Shows That Even a Beadle May Be Susceptible on Some Points
24. Chapter XXIVTreats on a Very Poor Subject, but Is a Short One, and May Be Found of Importance in This History
25. Chapter XXVWherein This History Reverts to Mr. Fagin and Company
26. Chapter XXVIIn Which a Mysterious Character Appears upon the Scene; and Many Things, Inseparable from This History, Are Done and Performed
27. Chapter XXVIIAtones for the Unpoliteness of a Former Chapter; Which Deserted a Lady, Most Unceremoniously
28. Chapter XXVIIILooks After Oliver, and Proceeds with His Adventures
29. Chapter XXIXHas an Introductory Account of the Inmates of the House, to Which Oliver Resorted
30. Chapter XXXRelates What Oliver’s New Visitors Thought of Him
31. Chapter XXXIInvolves a Critical Position
32. Chapter XXXIIOf the Happy Life Oliver Began to Lead with His Kind Friends
33. Chapter XXXIIIWherein the Happiness of Oliver and His Friends, Experiences a Sudden Check
34. Chapter XXXIVContains Some Introductory Particulars Relative to a Young Gentleman Who Now Arrives upon the Scene; and a New Adventure Which Happened to Oliver
35. Chapter XXXVContaining the Unsatisfactory Result of Oliver’s Adventure; and a Conversation of Some Importance Between Harry Maylie and Rose
36. Chapter XXXVIIs a Very Short One, and May Appear of No Great Importance in Its Place, but It Should Be Read Notwithstanding, as a Sequel to the Last, and a Key to One That Will Follow When Its Time Arrives
37. Chapter XXXVIIIn Which the Reader May Perceive a Contrast, Not Uncommon in Matrimonial Cases
38. Chapter XXXVIIIContaining an Account of What Passed Between Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, and Mr. Monks, at Their Nocturnal Interview
39. Chapter XXXIXIntroduces Some Respectable Characters with Whom the Reader Is Already Acquainted, and Shows How Monks and the Jew Laid Their Worthy Heads Together
40. Chapter XLA Strange Interview, Which Is a Sequel to the Last Chamber
41. Chapter XLIContaining Fresh Discoveries, and Showing That Surprises, Like Misfortunes, Seldom Come Alone
42. Chapter XLIIAn Old Acquaintance of Oliver’s, Exhibiting Decided Marks of Genius, Becomes a Public Character in the Metropolis
43. Chapter XLIIIWherein Is Shown How the Artful Dodger Got into Trouble
44. Chapter XLIVThe Time Arrives for Nancy to Redeem Her Pledge to Rose Maylie. She Fails
45. Chapter XLVNoah Claypole Is Employed by Fagin on a Secret Mission
46. Chapter XLVIThe Appointment Kept
47. Chapter XLVIIFatal Consequences
48. Chapter XLVIIIThe Flight of Sikes
49. Chapter XLIXMonks and Mr. Brownlow at Length Meet. Their Conversation, and the Intelligence That Interrupts It
50. Chapter LThe Pursuit and Escape
51. Chapter LIAffording an Explanation of More Mysteries Than One, and Comprehending a Proposal of Marriage with No Word of Settlement or Pin-Money
52. Chapter LIIFagin’s Last Night Alive
53. Chapter LIIIAnd Last