Dickens classic story of a boy forced to live in a dark and dismal London workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr Bumble Desperate but determined Oliver makes his escape and discovers that life in the harsh streets of London s underworld makes the workhouse look like a picnic Named a national institution by George Orwell Dickens offers his most popular tale of the orphan who is reared in a workhouse and runs away to London a novel of social protest a morality tale and a detective story One of the great novelist s most popular works Oliver Twist is also the purest distillation of Dickens s genius This tale of the orphan who is reared in a workhouse and runs away to London is a novel of social protest a morality tale and a detective story Oliver Twist presents some of the most sinister characters in Dickens the master thief Fagin the leering Artful Dodger the murderer Bill Sikes along with some of his most sentimental and comical characters Only Dickens can give us nightmare and daydream together According to George Orwell in Oliver Twist Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached Yet he managed to do it without making himself hated and more than this the very people he attacked have welcomed him so completely that he has become a national institution himself With an Introduction by Frederick Busch and an Afterword by Edward Le Comte One of the great novelist s most popular works Oliver Twists is also the purest distillation of Dickens s genius This tale of the orphan who is reared in a workhouse and runs away to London is a novel of social protest a morality tale and a detective story Oliver Twist presents some of the most sinister characters in Dickens the master thief Fagin the leering Artful dodger the murderer Bill Sikes along with some of the most sentimental and comical characters Only Dickens can give us nightmares and daydream together According to George Orwell in Ol