"Oliver Twist" Introduction of This Book:
Oliver Twist presents a story of a orphan who runs away from the workhouse only to be captured by a den of criminals. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence plagued by social evil portrays the dark 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. Dickens in this novel brings together the elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, and created an entirely new kind of fiction. The novel is scathing in its indictment of a cruel society which is pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.