Oliver Twist

Features some of the most memorably drawn villains - the treacherous gangmaster Fagin, the menacing thug Bill Sikes, the Artful Dodger and their den of thieves in the grimy London backstreets.

Charles Dickens (1812-70) had his first, astounding success with his first novel The Pickwick Papers and never looked back. In an extraordinarily full life he wrote, campaigned and spoke on a huge range of issues, and was involved in many of the key aspects of Victorian life, by turns cajoling, moving and irritating. He completed fourteen full-length novels and volume after volume of journalism. Oliver Twist was his second novel and champions the cause of London's orphans within a narrative both irresistibly sinister and often deeply ironic.

The Pickwick Papers , Nicholas Nickleby , The Old Curiosity Shop , Barnaby Rudge , A Christmas Carol , Martin Chuzzlewit , Dombey and Son , David Copperfield , Bleak House , Hard Times , Little Dorrit , A Tale of Two Cities , Great Expectations , Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood are also published in the Penguin English Library.