`A parish child - the orphan of a workhouse - the humble, half-starved drudge - to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none`

After the brutal care of the workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist falls into the more welcoming arms of a den of thieves. But the sinister Fagin`s grip is not light, and life in the underworld where Oliver now finds himself often ends in a noose . . .

Mordantly funny, with some of the most memorably drawn characters in all of fiction - including the arch-villain Fagin, menacing Bill Sikes and the artful Dodger - Dickens`s novel is a cutting social satire, imbued with a high moral sense and an air of threat and mystery.