From a parish workhouse to the heart of the industrial revolution, from debtors' jail to Cambridge University and a prestigious London church, Robert Blincoe's political, personal and turbulent story illuminates the Dickensian age like never before. In 1792 as revolution, riot and sedition spread across Europe, Robert Blincoe was born in the calm of rural St Pancras parish. At four he was abandoned to a workhouse, never to see his family again. At seven, he was sent 200 miles north to work in one of the cotton mills of the dawning industrial age. He suffered years of unrelenting abuse, a life dictated by the inhuman rhythm of machines. Like Dickens' most famous character, Blincoe rebelled after years of servitude. He fought back against the mill owners, earning beatings but gaining self-respect. He joined the campaign to protect children, gave evidence to a Royal Commission into factory conditions and worked with extraordinary tenacity to keep his own children from the factories. His life was immortalised in one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe. Renowned popular historian John Waller tells the true story of a parish boy's progress with passion and in enthralling detail.

The orphaned Oliver Twist falls in with thieves and pickpockets in Charles Dickens' novel of adventure, escapades, and some of the most beloved characters in literature. Full color illustrations.

Oliver Twist is a story of a young orphan, Oliver, and his attempts to stay good in a depraved society. The book exposes the miseries of poverty and its degrading effects through society. Oliver embodies innocence and incorruptibility. He was born and raised in a workhouse, then forced to live with a group of petty criminals and finally was adopted by a generous old man to live with him happily. He faces many obstacles and lives through many horrors throughout the novel. The cruelty of institutions and bureaucracies towards the unfortunate is perhaps the pre-eminent theme of the book, and essentially what makes it a social novel. Like a true Dickensian narrative, the dichotomy between Good and Evil are very clearly marked out. The story with many twists and turns keeps the reader engaged and imparts hope that benevolence can overcome and depravity.

An adaptation of the Charles Dickens story in which Oliver, an orphan, escapes the workhouse and flees to London where he falls in with a gang of thieves.

The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath - shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull's Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

Charles Dickens’ second novel, Oliver Twist, or The Parish Boy’s Progress, was first published as a serial (in monthly instalments) in the magazine Bentley’s Miscellany from February 1837 to April 1839. The novel was inspired by Robert Blincoe’s account of his childhood spent in a cotton mill. Oliver Twist, an orphan, is born in a workhouse and later sold off into an apprenticeship. Dickens situates his protagonist amid the squalid lives of beggars, criminals and petty thieves. Trapped in a world of corruption and poverty, Oliver with his pure heart is rewarded with a fairytale ending. The dark reality of child labour, the effects of industrialisation and the condition of orphans in London in the mid-19th century form the crux of Dickens’ heart-rending novel. Great Expectations revolves around the life of an orphan nicknamed Pip. The novel, set in the 19th century, traces the psychological growth of Pip in three stages: his childhood in the marshes of Kent, his journey from the rural environs to the London metropolis, and finally his reluctant reconciliation with the vanity of false promises and values. The cast includes the cold yet ethereal Estella, the kind-hearted blacksmith Joe, the ‘pale young gentleman’ Herbert Pocket and the affluent, eccentric spinster Miss Havisham, among others. George Bernard Shaw said of the novel, ‘All of one piece and consistently truthful.’

Oliver Twist, an orphan set upon by misfortune and adversity, runs away from the workhouse and is lured into a den of thieves peopled by inimitable personages. Combining elements of romance and melodrama, Oliver Twist inaugurated a new kind of fiction. We're pleased to bring you Jørgen Veisland's introduction to Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. To Veisland Oliver Twist shows that "concealed identity, like other hidden phantasmal objects, is the mark of the outcast." This edition combines Dickens' text with George Cruikshank's original illustrations, Veisland's introduction, and a newly written biography of Dickens. Know Your Classics is a collection of carefully selected texts offered in a new, informative and entertaining frame. With an informative introduction and a new biography each of our books in this series are given a modern, inviting typography that places them in our contemporary era. These are unmissable remixes of classics everyone should read.