Oliver Twist
(Charles Dickens)

A dying woman is found on the street and gives birth to an infant in a workhouse. No one knows who the woman is, but since she is not married and no one claims the child he is given to the workhouse to be raised. The infant's name is Oliver Twist. Until the age of nine, he is sent to an orphanage where the children are almost starved so that the woman keeping them can make a profit. Many children die under her care.

On Oliver's ninth birthday, he is taken back by the workhouse and given a job. After asking for more food one day, Oliver is locked away and eventually given to an undertaker as an apprentice. Oliver snaps when his mother is ridiculed and runs away to London to try and make a better life for himself.

Starving and on the verge of death, Oliver is forced to accept the help of a band of pick-pockets (although he does not know their trade at the time). On his first assignment, he realizes what his new "friends" do for a living and tries to run away. He is blamed for picking the pocket of an older gentleman, and eventually freed by testimony of a witness. The older gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, takes Oliver in and cares for him, since Oliver has become ill.

When Oliver is better, he runs an errand for Mr. Brownlow and is kidnapped once again by the band of thieves headed by Fagin, the Jew. Fagin attempts to turn Oliver into a cold-blooded thief and gives him over to a house-robber to go on assignment. Forced to break into the house, Oliver is shot in the arm before he can warn the family of the robbery and is left in a ditch to die. He seeks help from the house he was shot in, and is taken in.

After telling his story to the kind ladies of the house, Mrs. Maylie and Miss Rose, they feel for him and decide to take him in and help him in everything. They attempt to contact Mr. Brownlow, but he has moved to the West Indies. They, in turn, move to the countryside for Oliver's recovery, and Oliver runs into a strange man at the village. The strange man and Fagin wake Oliver up one day while he is sleeping, and it becomes clear that they are trying to take him once again.

The mystery of Oliver's true identify becomes central to the story. The strange man tracks down Oliver's mother's last possessions (the only known clues of Oliver's history) and destroys them. It becomes clear that Oliver is heir to a wealthy house, and the strange man does not want Oliver to have the inheritance.

Running into Mr. Brownlow once again, he and Rose are forewarned of the plot against Oliver and seek to set it right. Brownlow knows the strange man, who goes by the codename of Monks, and turns out to be Oliver's older half-brother. Brownlow forces Monks to give a confession and they split the inheritance. The group of friends move out to the countryside to live an easy life, and Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver as his own son.